From Passos the Indian to Doctor Chernoviz: experiments to cure leprosy in nineteenth-century Pará. / Do índio Passos ao doutor Chernoviz: experiências de cura da lepra no Pará do século XIX.

This article analyzes an experiment to cure leprosy using the assacu plant (Hura crepitans L.) conducted in Santarém, Pará, in 1847, by an Indigenous man named Antonio Vieira dos Passos. The experiment was later repeated in other Brazilian provinces and abroad. This article establishes relationships between medical practices in other parts of the country while focusing on the dialog between official and Indigenous medicine. Newspaper articles and official documents of the time show that Indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants was widely recognized and utilized by physicians wishing to incorporate it into the official therapeutic repertoire.

O artigo analisa uma experiência de cura da lepra com assacu (Hura crepitans L.), realizada em Santarém, Pará, em 1847, por um indígena chamado Antonio Vieira dos Passos. A experiência passou a ser realizada nas demais províncias do Brasil e também no exterior. Por essa razão, o artigo estabelece relações com práticas médicas realizadas em outras partes do país, tendo como foco o diálogo entre a medicina oficial e a medicina indígena. A análise de matérias de jornais e documentos oficiais revelou que os saberes indígenas sobre o uso de plantas medicinais eram amplamente reconhecidos e utilizados pelos médicos com a intenção de incorporá-los em seu repertório terapêutico.

[From relief to life, the last memory of leprosy sanatorium: investigation and patient interview in Wukang sanatorium].

Zhejiang Wukang sanatorium evolved from Hangchow C. M.S. Hospital, which was founded in 1887. It is the leprosy prevention and treatment center of Zhejiang Province after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Most of the leprosy patients (convalescents)in sanatoriums entered the hospital successively in 1960s. Due to the limitation of dapsone monotherapy and the poor living conditions, the convalescents need to receive long-term isolation treatment and engage in collective production. After the implementation of Reform and Opening-up policy, the leprosy patients' health care has been greatly improved. The leprosy prevention and treatment course has been gradually reduced; the widespread knowledge of leprosy gradually freed leprosy patients from the dilemma of being stigmatized. In the post-leprosy era, Wukang sanatorium changed from the original focus on disease treatment to strengthening the psychological construction of patients. Its function changed from isolation and prevention to rest and pension, and the status of leprosy patients changed from "patients" to "convalescents" . These changes reflect the humanistic care and guidance of destigmatization in the process of leprosy isolation and epidemic prevention from prevention to treatment to the aged.

Death and Survival of Patients with Hansen's Disease in Colonial Korea.

The purpose of this research is to describe how Hansen's disease patients experienced the modern system of control of Hansen's disease introduced by Japan, and the inimical attitude of society against them in colonial Korea. The study also seeks to reveal the development of the system to eliminate Hansen's disease patients from their home and community to larger society and leprosarium in this era. Sorokdo Charity hospital (SCH), a hospital for Hansen's disease patients, was built in 1916, and vagrant Hansen's disease patients began to be isolated in this hospital beginning in 1917 by the Japanese Government-General of Korea (JGGK). Once the police detained and sent vagrant Hansen's disease patients to SCH, stigma and discrimination against them strengthened in Korean society. Because of strong stigma and discrimination in Korean society, Hansen's disease patients suffered from daily threats of death. First, their family members were not only afraid of the contagiousness of Hansen's disease but also the stigma and discrimination against themselves by community members. If a family had a Hansen's disease patient, the rest of community members would discriminate against the entire family. Furthermore, because Hansen's disease patients were excluded from any economic livelihood such as getting a job, the existence of the patients was a big burden for their families. Therefore, many patients left their homes and began their vagrancy. The patients who could not leave their homes committed suicide or were killed by their family members. The victims of such deaths were usually women, who were at the lower position in the family hierarchy. In the strong Confucian society in Korea, more female patients were killed by themselves than male patients. Moreover, all of patients victims in the murder were women. This shows that the stigma and discrimination against Hansen's disease patients within their families were stronger against women than men. Strong stigma and discrimination made the patients rely on superstition such as cannibalism. Patients believed that there were not any effective medicine. There were a few reports of patients who were cured, and many were treated with chaulmoogra oil in the modern Hansen's disease hospitals. Eating human flesh was known as a folk remedy for Hansen's disease. As such, patients began to kill healthy people, usually children, to eat their flesh. Increased stigma led to increased victims. Hansen's disease patients who left their homes faced many threats during their vagrancy. For survival, they established their own organizations in the late 1920's. The patients who were rejected to be hospitalized in the Western Hansen's disease hospital at Busan, Daegu, and Yeosu organized self-help organizations. The purpose of these organizations was first to secure the medicine supply of chaulmoogra oil. However, as stigma and discrimination strengthened, these organizations formed by Hansen's disease patients demanded the Japanese Government-General of Korea to send and segregate them on Sorok island. They did not know the situation of the inside of this island because news media described it as a haven for patients, and very few patients were discharged from this island to tell the truth. On this island, several hundreds of patients were killed by compulsory heavy labor, starvation, and violence. They were not treated as patients, but as something to be eliminated. Under strong suppression on this island, the patients resisted first by escaping this island. However, in 1937, some patients tried to kill a Korean staff but failed. Attempted murderers were all put in the jail, also located on this island. In 1941, a patient murdered another patient who had harassed other patients, and in 1942, Chunsang Lee, a patient, killed the director of Sorok island. These instances show that there was a system to eliminate Hansen's disease patients in colonial Korea.

Damien de Veuster (1840-1889): A life devoted to lepers.

Father Damien de Veuster, or Saint Damien of Molokai (1840-1889), was one of the pioneers of the holistic approach to care provision for leprosy patients and contributed to the overcoming of the patients' social stigmatization. He devoted his life to the lepers living in America's only leper colony, on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, where people with leprosy were required to live under government-sanctioned medical quarantine. Father Damien gained practical skills in caring for the sick, eagerly learning wound cleansing, bandaging techniques, and drug administration from a nurse. Mahatma Gandhi said that Father Damien's work had inspired his own social campaigns in India.

Possible cases of leprosy from the Late Copper Age (3780-3650 cal BC) in Hungary.

At the Abony-Turjányos dulo site, located in Central Hungary, a rescue excavation was carried out. More than 400 features were excavated and dated to the Protoboleráz horizon, at the beginning of the Late Copper Age in the Carpathian Basin, between 3780-3650 cal BC. Besides the domestic and economic units, there were two special areas, with nine-nine pits that differed from the other archaeological features of the site. In the northern pit group seven pits contained human remains belonging to 48 individuals. Some of them were buried carefully, while others were thrown into the pits. The aim of this study is to present the results of the paleopathological and molecular analysis of human remains from this Late Copper Age site. The ratio of neonates to adults was high, 33.3%. Examination of the skeletons revealed a large number of pathological cases, enabling reconstruction of the health profile of the buried individuals. Based on the appearance and frequency of healed ante- and peri mortem trauma, inter-personal (intra-group) violence was characteristic in the Abony Late Copper Age population. However other traces of paleopathology were observed on the bones that appear not to have been caused by warfare or inter-group violence. The remains of one individual demonstrated a rare set of bone lesions that indicate the possible presence of leprosy (Hansen's disease). The most characteristic lesions occurred on the bones of the face, including erosion of the nasal aperture, atrophy of the anterior nasal spine, inflammation of the nasal bone and porosity on both the maxilla and the bones of the lower legs. In a further four cases, leprosy infection is suspected but other infections cannot be excluded. The morphologically diagnosed possible leprosy case significantly modifies our knowledge about the timescale and geographic spread of this specific infectious disease. However, it is not possible to determine the potential connections between the cases of possible leprosy and the special burial circumstances.

A synopsis of the history of Hansen's disease.

Leprosy is a contagious infectious disease caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium leprae. This microorganism was discovered by Dr. Gerhard Hansen, and the illness was then baptized as Hansen's disease. For a long time, Hansen's disease was thought to be hereditary-a curse or a punishment from God. The disease affects skin and nerves and can cause severe damage. Due to its destructive effects, leprosy has caused fear, segregation, and prejudice in all societies since Biblical times. Patients with Hansen's disease have not been treated humanely around the world throughout the ages. This article is a summary of curious and interesting facts about the history and cultural aspects of Hansen's disease, which has chastised humanity for centuries. These facts are about the discovery of the disease, its propagation, the evolution of treatments, and the prejudice of society towards patients.

The leprosarium of Saint-Thomas d'Aizier: The cementochronological proof of the medieval decline of Hansen disease in Europe?

This study compares the adult survivorship profiles of people interred in the Saint-Thomas d'Aizier leprosarium, estimated by cementochronology, to eight archaeological series in northern France dated from Late Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages, periods of significant visibility for Hansen's disease (leprosy). The goals are to understand the impact of leprosy on various social groups and to explore the cause of leprosy's decline by analyzing male and female fertility. Survival rates differed between medieval leprosy-free sites and the Saint-Thomas d'Aizier leprosarium, although this difference was statistically significant only for the female leprosarium sample. The selective female frailty, a consequence of social exclusion and the collapse of the quality of life, combined with the infertility of lepromatous couples, offer a multi-causal explanation to the end of the expansion and then decline of leprosy in southern and western European countries.

[Analytical research on Zheng Hao's Participation of the International Congress of Leprosy in 1909].

The Second International Congress was held in August, 1909 in Norway. Zheng Hao was dispatched by the Qing Government to attend the Congress as a representative. Through the Congress, Chinese people got to understand the latest ideas of prevention and treatment of leprosy in international medical field, and the approaches they adopted as well at that time. Meanwhile, Zheng Hao frankly confessed the backward status on the prevention and treatment in leprosy in China, and expressed the strong will to learn from the western world in this regard. This historical event, commonly ignored, manifested the fact that, beginning from the late Qing Dynasty, the involvement of Chinese medicine into the world medical trend as a whole was proceeding. By seizing this rare chance of participating the international meeting, the outstanding Chinese medical persons, with Zheng Hao as its representative, made up their mind to keep up with the international medical advanced pace, learning lessons, and pushing forward the development of Chinese medicine.

Bone Changes in an Italian Ancient Human Skeleton--Possibly Caused by Leprosy.

Leprosy is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. In the last stage it can afflict the skeleton with a series of specific and non-specific bone changes. The possibility of studyingthe skeleton of an individual who lived in the pre-antibiotic era (Roman period) with skeletal changes in the rhino-maxillary region and hand and foot bones, permitted skeletal lesions to be analyzed directly. In addition, the localization and the complexity of the bony lesions could be attributed to the presence of leprosy. The importance of this approach was the possibility to verify the nature and typology of the primary and secondary bone changes in leprosy in absence of clinical therapy.

Tuberculosis and leprosy in Italy: new skeletal evidence.

Tuberculosis (TB) and leprosy are infections caused by Mycobacteria. This paper documents new skeletal evidence in Italy from the Iron Age site of Corvaro (Central Italy; 5th century BCE) and the Roman site of Palombara (Central Italy; 4th-5th century CE), and briefly reviews the extant evidence for these infections in Italy. The skeletal evidence for TB in Italy is more ancient than for leprosy, and is more common. The oldest evidence for both mycobacterial diseases is in the North of Italy, but this could be by chance, even if biomolecular models suggest a land route from the East to central Europe, especially for leprosy.

[Peculiar history to formation of 'Freely recuperate zone' in the National Sanatorium Kuryu Rakusen-en, Gunma, Japan (relation between the 'Old Yunosawa-ward' and 'Freely recuperate zone' in the National Sanatorium Kuryu Rakusen-en)].

Hansen's disease sufferers had been visiting the hot spring, Kusatsu-Spa, in Gunma, Japan, for Toji (which means 'hot springs treatment' in Japanese) since the middle ages, as it was known reportedly for a long time to be effective in curing the disease. In 1869, Kusatsu-Spa was hit by a massive fire. The innkeepers, who suffered devastating damages, were trying to reconstruct the economy quickly by promoting the medical benefits of the hot spring. This made many Hansen's disease patients to visit and of which many stayed on a long term bases. They would use the hot spring with ordinary visitors. And, they had received the treatment of the spotted moxa cautery with the hot-spring treatment. Later on, Kusatsu- Spa became well known throughout Japan and as the numbers of ordinary visitors increased, they voiced their concerns in sharing the hot spring with the Hansen's disease patients. Therefore, the innkeepers decided to move the patients to another district called Yunosawa and suggested to make a special village of just the patients. In 1887, the representative of the patients came to an agreement with the mayor of Yunosawa to establish a treatment centre there. Yunosawa became part of an administrative area of Kusatsu Town. The area seemed to become a local-governing area mainly shaped by Hansen's disease sufferers and the first legal residential area where Hansen's disease sufferers were given citizenships and may convalesce freely. However, in 1931, leprosy prevention law was passed, and the Japanese government built a new medical treatment centre of Hansen's disease, 4km away from Kusatsu- Spa, which is called National Sanatorium Kuryu Rakusen-en. After deliberations with the representative of the Hansen's disease patients living in the Yunosawa area and the governor of Gunma Prefecture, who received the order from the Japanese government to move them, had agreed to the mass relocation in 1941. This is how Yunosawa had closed its 55 years history and many Hansen's disease patients had moved to the National Sanatorium Kuryu Rakusen-en. The 'Freely recuperate Zone' within the centre houses affluent patients who had enough funds to build their own houses. I was able to hear from many residential People who have historical knowledge of the above and would like to report it here.

[Leprosy--a stigma in the 21st century]. / Lepra--stigma a XXI. században.

For the initiation of the French journalist Raoul Follereau in 1954 the UNO inaugurated the Leprosy Day (Martyr's Day) that is celebrated on the last Sunday of January every year. Although the bacterium that causes leprosy was isolated by the Norwegian scientist Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen in 1873 and from 1982 this disease can be cured with a special pharmaceutical complex, still 219.826 new leprous are detected on Earth every year, according to the data published in August, 2010 by WHO-experts. Ancient Chinese and Hindu source-strings from 600 B. C. are referring to leprosy, however, the disease was imported by the army of Alexander the Great from India around 327-326 B. C. Even the Old and the New Testament from the Holy Bible are mentioning leprosy in several details. During the Middle Ages the Military and Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem, established in the Holy Land in 72 A. D., did pioneer work in nursing leprous. In the process of time the medical attendance concerning leprous was organized in special hospitals called "leprosoriums" built on river-banks. Special office and even services were organized for the treatment and isolation of the people infected. Although medical science has prevailed against leprosy, and almost simultaneously even jurisprudence defended the patients' rights via legislation, still mankind can regrettably not get rid of this disease that stigmatizes seriously.