World Leprosy Day started in 1954 and takes place on January 29th. It aims to raise awareness about the disease leprosy. In particular, it is an opportunity to inform people that leprosy is a curable disease and is not passed on by touching leprosy sufferers. For hundreds of years, people have wrongly thought they can catch leprosy through contact with those who have the disease. They are afraid of anyone with leprosy. Because of this, people with leprosy have been made to live outside of society in special colonies, often on remote islands. Other sufferers become outcasts in their communities. Leprosy affects millions of peoplearound the world today, often the poorest people in society. Having the disease means they cannot find work, which adds to their poverty.

Leprosy is also known as Hansen’s Disease, named after doctor G.H.A. Hansen, who discovered the disease. It is a bacteria that is carried in water vapor through the air. Most people are naturally immune to the disease but those in poorer countries can have weaker immune systems and so have little immunity. If it is not treated, it causes permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes. It can cause permanent disability and reduce life expectancy by 50 per cent. For centuries, people believed leprosy caused parts of thebody to fall off, but this is totally untrue. This is another part of the fiction and social stigma that surrounds the disease. Medicine can prevent the spread of the disease. More than 14 million people have been cured with a multi-drug therapy since the early 1980s.

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