India's Leprosy Sufferers (1999)

Leper Outcasts (1999) - On the streets of India, the outstretched begging hands of those crippled by leprosy is still a common site.

While globally medicine has had a major impact in preventing leprosy, it's still proving difficult to eradicate. In a culture that widely considers leprosy as divine intervention, the atonement for past sins, carriers are reluctant to seek treatment until it's too late. And so the government has mobilised an operation to seek out the infected while it's still early enough to prescribe effective treatment. "Looking for cases in the villages is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack," despairs a doctor, but after screening a phenomenal 200,000 people they have successfully treated 45 new cases of leprosy. Equipped with casebooks cataloguing horrific photos of leper's lesions and withered limbs, the doctors shock villagers into succumbing to the tests, despite the possible humiliation.

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Marion Mayer Hohdahl - Ref. 0613