How long has leprosy been around

Cochrane was a pioneer in the use of dapsone pills which became the treatment of choice during the s. Disappointment followed, though, as the leprosy bacilli began developing dapsone resistance.

Paul W. Brand begins the first rehabilitation research program for leprosy patients at Carville. Studies begin in the biomechanics of deformity of hands and feet. The development of amputation prevention footcare techniques begin and today also help people with diabetes and other diseases.

Drug trials on the island of Malta in the s led to an effective combination of drugs to treat leprosy. The three drugs, taken in combination, are dapsone, rifampicin or rifampin and clofazimine. Treatment takes from six months to a year or more. Since then, millions of people have been cured of leprosy with MDT. Even though it is curable with Multi-Drug Therapy, children, men and women are still being crippled by this terrible disease.

On the one hand, they were forced to live in isolation, far from their lives and families, below treacherous, insurmountable sea cliffs. Most died within a decade of arrival. But on the edge of the Pacific, against a backdrop of incredible natural beauty, many eked out a happy life, between softball games, church worship and even dances. Nearly 1, couples on the island married between and , with some going on to have children.

Tragically, babies were taken from their mothers and raised elsewhere. At Carville, conditions during the earliest decades were rugged. When the facility was first established in swampy, malaria-prone territory outside Baton Rouge, the afflicted were initially housed in former slave cabins, where they shivered and sweltered through the seasons.

Their lives were initially bound by fences—one that divided the men's side of the campus from the women's side since interactions between the sexes were strictly forbidden and a tall iron perimeter fence to thwart the many escape attempts.

There was even an on-site jail to punish runaways, who were sometimes brought back in leg irons. And patients had to sacrifice their very identities: Upon arrival, they were immediately encouraged to take a new name to protect their families back home from the disease's powerful stigma.

This hospital for leprosy sufferers was for many decades run by nuns. Eventually, a hospital was built on the Carville site, and emphasis shifted from a culture resembling incarceration to one focused more on treatment and research. And after the s brought a cure, some restrictions began to ease within confinement. In , patients were allowed to vote again. Over time, a bustling community developed as residents married, built homes, planted gardens, published a magazine, developed small craft businesses and even enjoyed a pint-sized Mardi Gras festival.

And for these last remaining few, these distant locations became something approaching home. Overview: Leprosy has tormented humans throughout recorded history.

Until the late s, leprosy doctors all over the world treated patients by injecting them with oil from the chaulmoogra nut. This course of treatment was painful, and although some patients appeared to benefit, its long term efficacy was questionable. Promin, a sulfone drug, was introduced as a treatment for leprosy. It was first identified and used at Carville. Promin successfully treated leprosy but unfortunately treatment with Promin required many painful injections.

Dapsone pills, pioneered by Dr. Cochrane at Carville, became the treatment of choice for leprosy. Dapsone worked wonderfully at first, but unfortunately, M. The first successful multi-drug treatment MDT regimen for leprosy was developed through drug trials on the island of Malta. The World Health Organization began recommending MDT, a combination of three drugs: dapsone, rifampicin, and clofazimine. MDT with these drugs takes from six months to a year or even more, depending on stregnth of leprosy infection.

MDT with a combination of dapsone, rifampicin, and clofazimine is still the best treatment for preventing nerve damage, deformity, disability and further transmission.