Leprosy in Mumbai

Leprosy and the social stigma it produces in Mumbai, India, 13/09/2007.

Across personal stories, this feature speaks about leprosy, one illness which still reach to one million of people in India. Myth, fear, social stigma or false information, conform a difficult way to eradicate it.
Mumbai`s population arises from more than 15 millions, 5 millions of whom are living on the streets of Mumbai or slums in and around the city.15 m2 is a normal space to share and to live for one family of 5 or 6 people. Poverty, overcrowding and actually bad health and feedind conditions are the best chances to grow to leprosae bacteria. Today leprosy is a curable illness with the right treatment and drugs since the first signs of the illness. Even when the illness is in advanced stages is curable. I have to say, the drugs and treatment is free and there are several health organizations that are giving the drugs and a medical service and attention to ill persons. But the social stigma and fear against the illness obstruct this work, and as a result a majority of patients don´t admit the pain, allowing to the illness to follow the slow advance dying the nerves and their sensorial capacities, even transmitting the bacteria to healthy people.
Once one person have developed the illness, due to society refusal, many times have to beg by train stations or emigrate to others areas of the country where no one could recognize him.
The main work for human organizations in the area consists of giving information about how to prevent the infection and to fight against the social fear to confess the illness. Every two weeks, nurse and doctors, look for new cases on Mumbai slums, marking each door with the date it was reviewed. The new cases, are note down and go directly to a medical supervised program during the year they have to take the drugs.