Renowned for causing disfigurement and condemning sufferers to colonies, leprosy was once the contagious scourge of the world. These days it's easily cured - if you are one of the 5% of people who can even catch it. All that aside, the disease has a fascinating history - read on to explore...
- The Slow Killer
- Leper Knights and the Holy Disease
- Leper Houses and Colonies
- Red Squirrel & Armadillo Lepers
- The Leprous Spy
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| Leper colonies kept the infectious disease from spreading... (herbert2512) |
The Slow Killer
Leprosy (or Hansen's disease) is an infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae, bacteria that can get into the body via coughs and sneezes from an infected person. The actual likelihood of infection is pretty low and prolonged contact (we're talking months here) may be required to actually contract the disease. Most humans (around 95%) are naturally resistant to leprosy, while the bacterium itself is fragile and quickly dies in anything but ideal conditions.
The story changes if you do get infected, as leprosy will slowly attack your skin, eyes, nerves and mucous membranes. Symptoms including discolored skin and swellings, along with a growing numbness in affected areas. Being unable to feel parts of your body can lead to injuries (you may literally not realize you're hurting yourself) while putting too much pressure on your fingertips and toes can cause reabsorption of soft tissue and bone. This can actually lead to fingers and toes shortening and potentially vanishing entirely, giving rise to the idea that leprosy makes body parts fall off.
On the upside, leprosy is easily treatable with modern medicine. A course of antibiotics will purge the infection from the human body - though this will not do anything to repair any nerve damage and disfigurement that has already occurred!
Leper Knights and the Holy Disease
In times past, someone had to provide long term care for those afflicted with leprosy. The crusade era Order of Saint Lazarus were a group of knights who did just that.
Attitudes towards the afflicted varied. Some advocated that sufferers had been judged by god and deemed unworthy. Others claimed that the disease was a divine instrument of suffering, sent to purify the victim in preparation for heaven. The Order of Saint Lazarus took the care of the afflicted as their duty and counted a large number of lepers in their ranks, often accepting knights from other orders who had contracted the disease.
It may seem strange that this order dedicated to the care of lepers would be warriors as well, but the order actively served in the crusades. Though they experienced disaster on the battlefield, their dogged resistance was notable - in 1244 at the Battle of Gaza, a contingent of the knights stood and died to a man over the course of many hours. A well-armored knight that doesn't really feel pain and has no expectations of long term survival could be a determined foe.
King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem suffered from leprosy but had a reputation as an effective ruler and potent warrior. He is recorded as having led an army to victory in the crusades, fighting despite his bandaged hands.
Leper Houses and Colonies
Before the advent of antibiotics, the only real defense against leprosy was to avoid contracting it in the first place. Lepers were often separated from normal society, resulting in the formation of "leper houses." In England, the earliest such house is thought to have been St Mary Magdalen in Winchester, Hampshire, with the site containing leprous bones dating between 960 and 1030 AD. At least 320 leper houses are thought to have been built in England by 1350.
Leper houses were often situated at the edge of towns so that the lepers could beg for alms or offer prayers for the townsfolk. As noted earlier, there was a view that lepers were suffering on Earth but would go directly to heaven on death - so people accorded them a semi-holy status. This attitude changed after the horrors of the Black Death, with more effort being put into isolating those bearing the marks of leprosy.
While modern medicine has established a way of curing lepers, leper colonies do still exist. The Hawaiian island of Molokai features Kalaupapa, a leprosarium established in 1866. Whilst the remaining inhabitants have all been cured of the disease, the law that forcibly placed lepers in the colony also guaranteed them a home there for the rest of their lives!
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| Red squirrels can carry leprosy... (Image by Oldiefan) |
Red Squirrel & Armadillo Lepers
Britain has a dwindling population of red squirrels that scientists hope to preserve... but sentiments might change as researchers have found that many of them carry leprosy!
A study of 110 British and Irish squirrels found that approximately one-third of them carried the disease. It's even possible that these rodents may be behind the spread of leprosy in Europe, since their pelts (and even meat) were a valued trading commodity.
Over in the USA, a few armadillos in the south seem to carry Mycobacterium leprae. The disease can be transmitted to humans that spend time handling, skinning or eating the creatures... as a few residents of Florida found out in 2015. In a bit of a twist, the armadillo population probably became infected due to contact with infected humans!
The Leprous Spy
Most spies maintain their cover by blending in, but one Filipina by the name of Josefina Guerrero did just the opposite. She had previously contracted Hansen's disease and spent her time in a leprosarium, where her symptoms were controlled via medication. This all changed during WWII when the Japanese occupied the Philippines and her access to the medication was curtailed.
Feeling she had nothing left to lose, Guerrero made contact with the Philopena resistance and offered to help the allies. Her secret weapon was to not hide her leprosy - Japanese troops were terrified of her condition. Soldiers backed away and no one would risk searching her, making her the perfect courier.
Carrying messages in her hair or socks, she helped the allies map out Japanese fortifications. Fully expecting death, she managed to bring a map of the minefields around Manila to American forces and even gave medical aid on the battlefield.
After the war she returned to a leprosarium, but was able to draw government attention to the awful conditions inside. Her efforts won her recognition in the international medical community and she eventually became an American citizen, receiving treatment and living out the rest of her life in peace.
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