NGOs Demand An End To Leprosy Stigma, UK

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 28 Jan 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Nine NGOs have urged the global community to halt discrimination against people affected by leprosy and demanded the restoration of their basic human rights.

The NGOs were supporting the third Global Appeal to End Stigma and Discrimination against People Affected by Leprosy, launched at the Royal Society of Medicine and sponsored by The Nippon Foundation, which has been involved with the global campaign to eliminate leprosy for over 30 years.

Speaking at the launch function, Mr Yohei Sasaskawa, Chairman of The Nippon Foundation and World Health Organisation (WHO) Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, said, "Everywhere I see barriers preventing people affected by leprosy from leading normal lives."

Today, although leprosy is entirely curable, millions of people around the world are subjected to discrimination and social exclusion because they, or members of their families, have had the disease; their opportunities for education, employment and marriage are severely curtailed. The word 'leper' is still widely used as a derogatory term to describe a tainted person or an outcast from society.

The Global Appeal 2008 was launched by Sahira Adam Hamadi and Ame Juma Muhamed, two children from Tanzania who have been cured of leprosy, supported by José Ramirez, an American who was diagnosed with leprosy in 1968 and has endured, in his words, "isolation, fear, ostracism, lengthy hospitalisation, depression, misinformation and lost identity" as a result of the disease.

As the Global Appeal states, "diagnosed and treated promptly, leprosy leaves no trace. Far harder to remove is the age-old stigma."

Since the 1980s, an estimated 16 million people have been cured by multi-drug therapy (MDT). However there are still more than 250,000 new cases reported each year in Asia, Africa and Latin America, though these numbers are in decline. All but four countries have achieved the elimination target set by the WHO of under one case per 10,000 population. In India, which accounts for 70 percent of the world's leprosy cases, there are still over 700 leprosy colonies which help to perpetuate the stigma and discrimination.

In the UK there are 15 new cases each year, mainly from the Indian sub-continent, with 50 people currently undergoing treatment and a further 120 dealing with long-term complications. Yet the stigma attached to the disease often prevents people from seeking diagnosis.

Mr Sasakawa describes the elimination of leprosy as his 'life's work', and has initiated Global Appeals in 2006 and 2007. He has repeatedly approached the United Nations Sub Commission on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights, obtaining unanimous approval for a resolution to urge governments to end basic human rights violations, and is currently bringing the issue to the attention of the newly formed Human Rights Council.

Notes

1. NGOs supporting the Global Appeal 2008 are: Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists, Leonard Cheshire Disability, Disabled Peoples' International, International Movement ATD Fourth World, the Women's World Summit Foundation, HelpAge International, the International Save the Children Alliance and the World Council of Churches.

2. The first Global Appeal to End Stigma and Discrimination Against People Affected by Leprosy, coinciding with World Leprosy Day, was held in January 2006 in New Delhi and was endorsed by 11 world leaders such as President Lula da Silva of Brazil, former Presidents Jimmy Carter (USA) and Ramaswami Venkataraman (India), and Nobel Laureates including President Oscar Arias, the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In January 2007, 16 leaders of leprosy communities from 12 countries signed the Appeal.

3. Yohei Sasakawa spends one third of every year visiting endemic countries. He has served as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination since 2001, and was recently appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the Human Rights of People Affected by Leprosy by the Government of Japan. Mr Sasakawa joined The Nippon Foundation as a trustee in 1981, served as President from 1989 and became Chairman on 1 July 2005.

4. The Nippon Foundation's overall objectives include assistance for humanitarian activities, both at home and abroad, and global maritime development. Its philanthropic ideals enhance social development and self-sufficiency, and it pursues these principles by working to improve public health and education, alleviate poverty, eliminate hunger and help the disabled. For over 30 years, The Nippon Foundation has been involved with the global campaign to eliminate leprosy working with the WHO, governments, international organisations and NGOs. One example of this work is the funding, between 1995 and 1999, of free multi-drug therapy (MDT) for every leprosy-affected person in the world.

Nippon Foundation