Month: August 2022

The consequences of leprostigma A leprosy hospital in India Leprostigma in society causes many patients with active leprosy to delay or avoid treatment (35). In Kaur and Ramesh’s research (48), nearly 77.4% of female leprosy patients in Delhi were afraid of receiving confronting questions about leprosy. Furthermore, Pelizzari et al. (49) found that some medical professionals even advised their patients to avoid discussing leprosy in public. These actions of avoiding…

Leprostigma One of the biggest obstacles in reaching the complete elimination of leprosy is universal leprostigma. The main sources of leprostigma are religious and linguistic stereotypes, misconceptions, and fear of people with deformities. Religious and linguistic stereotypes come from many sources, one being the persistence of discriminatory language, as classified by the UN special rapporteur (30). Across diverse cultures, the word ‘leprosy’ was metaphorically associated with sins, curses or…

Leprosy is an infectious disease caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium leprae (1). Mycobacterium leprae  Leprosy patients can experience deformities that affect sight, touch, and manual dexterity. Macules, papules, and nodules are prevalent among other skin lesions (2). Along with these symptoms, leprosy patients experience immense stigma and discrimination, also called leprostigma. Leprosy can be cured using a combination of three antibiotics - rifampicin, clofazimine, and dapsone - widely known as multidrug…