The Stigmatization of Leprosy in India and Its Impact on Future Approaches to Elimination and Control

Traditionally, India holds the unenviable position of the origin of leprosy. The disease is thought to have then spread, via trade and war, to China, Egypt, and the Middle East, and later to Europe and the Americas. From antiquity to modernity, Indian society treated leprosy singularly with respect to custom and law, a response shaped by both scientific knowledge and cultural attitudes. India's future challenges in leprosy control include multiple systems of medicine, stigma, and educational knowledge gaps. By looking through the historical window of leprosy in India, we propose that continued success in elimination and control requires a holistic approach addressing these issues (Image 1).

• Publication year

  2008

• Venue

  PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases

• Publication date

  2008-01-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Sociology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1371/journal.pntd.0000113PMID 18235845PMCID 2217676
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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