When Leprosy is about Love

The stigma of leprosy is born out of ignorance. In healing leprosy, one may also have to heal the mind and heart of healthy people towards leprosy first before the leper.

Although leprosy is a disease that dates back to the time of Moses and eventually to Christ’s life here on earth, little is known of its cure. The Bible is replete with illustrations of how lepers were socially castigated by being held in isolation from the community for fear of contamination. Yet science has proven that contamination from leprosy actually happens only in extreme circumstances.

It seems to have become easier for the world to fund and spend for research on AIDS or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome when this is acquired out of promiscuity; heart disease when this is contracted out of indulgence; or cancer when this grows out of abusive lifestyle. The world spends so much for diseases that could be prevented by leading an undefiled life, but hardly spends for researches on diseases that are born out of the environment. Nor does the world spend for soul winning campaigns that would veer away or discourage man from leading or becoming enslaved to defiled, sinful lives.

Medicine: The door, then the healing.

The American Leprosy Missions is doing what the world would normally be fearful about – getting near and being with lepers to rehabilitate their condition, prevent the disability from getting worse and to fund more research for its cure. This non-profit Christian medical mission has actually been working on the treatment, rehabilitation and cure for leprosy spanning 102 years in heeding the call to open the Bible and spread the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christopher Doyle, president of the Leonard Wood Memorial American Leprosy Foundation said that a group of Christian missionaries and doctors started the work on the rehabilitation and prevention of leprosy in New York City in 1906. “We want to see people healed in body and spirit. Medicine is our door to help people get the spiritual healing they need and spread the Word of God. It has opened a lot of doors for us and it has allowed us to start missions work even to countries that do not allow missions work like India or China or Myanmar and other places that would not let missionaries in. Coming in through the door of medicine, we are able to meet people’s needs in a holistic manner.”

That holistic manner includes rehabilitation, vocational training, micro-finance projects and building houses for people affected by leprosy. Doyle said that on a worldwide basis, it takes approximately $300 to cure one leprosy patient. This cost includes providing anti-leprosy drugs, surgical intervention for disabilities, training of health workers, research, public information programs and physical and vocational rehabilitation assistance. Said Doyle, “For somebody in the US, $300 is one trip to the doctor. For people in developing countries, that might be half a year’s wages and probably they cannot afford it which is why we are raising money to provide free treatment for leprosy.”

Loving the unloved

Mission workers in the treatment of leprosy are moved by the Holy Spirit to love the unloved. Doyle said when people go for leprosy treatment, there are plenty of opportunities to share the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ because lepers see a unique testimony among healthy and normal people reaching out to treat them.

“There is openness,” Doyle said, “Here are lepers who have been rejected even by their own families all their lives but they see doctors and mission workers loving and caring for them.” More than the medicine and rehabilitation, it is love that comes with healing.”

Describing the extent of the work and the depth of that love, he said, “Right now we have projects in 12 different countries. India has the most leprosy cases in the world constituting about 70 percent of all the leprosy cases, the second highest is Brazil. Our priorities are countries that have a thousand cases or more. The Philippines has 2,600 new cases is also a priority especially that our work here spans 100 years. We keep committed and there is a lot of work.”

Fingers and noses don’t fall off

A lot of work because more than the healing, Doyle underscored that there is a need to heal stigmatized perception of healthy people on lepers. He said, “Some of the misconceptions are that if a person has leprosy his nose is going to fall off or his fingers are going to fall off. No, these are not going to fall off, these are just injured. Also, you don’t get leprosy by shaking hands or hugging a leper. Leprosy is transmitted through the air and it really takes prolonged contact to get leprosy. It is not something to be afraid of.”

“People should treat lepers like any other normal person – the way people with AIDS are being treated. People with cancer or diabetes are not treated differently, why treat lepers differently? Sometimes we have to accommodate people with leprosy because of their disability or deformity.”

To clear things, leprosy is a disease caused by a germ or bacillus called Mycobacterium leprae. It is also called Hansen’s disease because a Norwegian doctor Armauer Hansen was the first to view the bacillus under a microscope in 1873.

When a person has leprosy, the bacillus attacks nerve endings and destroys the body’s ability to feel pain and injury. Without feeling pain, people hurt themselves on fire, thorns, rocks and even hot coffee cups so that these injuries become infected and result in tissue loss. So when leprosy attacks the nerves in the legs for instance, it interrupts sensation in the feet so that the feet can become subject to erosion through unattended wounds and infection. If the germ attacks the arm or muscles in the arm, there can be curling of the fingers. Untreated, leprosy can cause deformity, crippling and blindness.

But while leprosy can only be transmitted primarily through coughing and sneezing when the bacilli are discharged as droplets or dust particles that others inhale, doctors and researchers say that about 95 percent of human beings have a natural immunity for leprosy.

In fact, Doyle said that high incidence of leprosy tends to follow poverty. In countries where a large part of the population is poor, there is also a high incidence of leprosy because with this comes poor health, poor nutrition and poor sanitation. On a world scale there is a new case of leprosy in the world, every two minutes.

Humbling experience

Curing leprosy is a humbling experience for Christians. The blessing of spreading the Gospel comes with this humility. As a testimony, Doyle said that while the number of leprosy cases has decreased over the years, the number of converted souls to the Lord Jesus Christ has increased with opening the Gospel to lepers and their loved ones.

“When I started 14 years ago in 1995, there was an estimated a million new cases a year. In that year, there were almost 800,000 new cases and last year there was about 270,000 that is a big drop down. So we know our work is effective,” said Doyle.

There is one stigma though that may not be curable – leprous lifestyle. It is far more effective to cure and heal a leper who is won to the Lord Jesus Christ than it is to tell a healthy man to stop a defiled, sinful life.