Leprosy, otherwise known as leprosy, has many other names: the disease of St. Lazarus, black sickness, mournful disease, lazy death. And also this disease is called Hansen's disease (Hansen) - by the name of the Norwegian doctor who discovered and described its pathogen in the 19th century.
Lepers were not allowed to live with other people. They were forever expelled from the cities and exiled to a kind of shelters or colonies. And in the article we will talk about what it is - a leper colony, and what are its features.
About illness
Leprosy is a type of infectious disease caused by parasitic mycobacteria inside the cell. Without any particular painful manifestations, they mainly affect the patient's skin, as well as lymph nodes, muscles and the autonomic nervous system.
This disease was considered contagious to others until the 30s of the last century. However, according to modern data, only 30% of those in contact with lepers are susceptible to it, and they get sick withserious consequences no more than 3%.
The incubation period of the disease is quite long and can range from six months to 10 years. In some cases, it stretches up to 20 years.
A characteristic symptom of this disease is the formation of folds on the skin of the face (the so-called lion's muzzle). Far advanced forms of leprosy without proper treatment are accompanied by even more terrifying changes: patients lose their hair, eyelashes and eyebrows, fall off the finger phalanges, nostrils, muscle atrophy occurs. Damage to the liver, kidneys and organs of vision is not uncommon.
A bit of history
Leprosy is the oldest disease known to mankind. It originated in countries with a hot climate, most likely in Asia. And from here it began to spread throughout the world: travelers and sailors brought it first to Africa and later to the countries of South America.
Patients with leprosy were mentioned in ancient Egyptian papyri, as well as in the Talmud and the Bible. The Old Testament, for example, instructed:
When a person has a swelling, lichen, or a white spot on the skin that resembles a leprosy ulcer, he should be brought to the high priest Aaron or one of his sons … The high priest will examine the wound. If the hair on it turns white and it goes deep under the skin of the body, this is a leprous ulcer; the priest who performed the inspection must declare the person's body "unclean".
The Bible also prescribed the norms of social behavior for lepers: they should wear torn clothes, not cover their heads and warn in public placesaround shouting about themselves: "Unclean!"
The French Inquisition and the Church Tribunal created by it believed that this disease was nothing more than a curse sent by the Lord for grave sins. The inquisitors performed several special rites on the unfortunate. Symbolic funerals, funerals and expulsion from the cities - such was the fate of these people. Often, their relatives were also deprived of their rights and expelled. And this was not the worst of the outcomes - the Inquisition often simply sent "sinners" to the stake.
The houses and possessions of the lepers should have been burned.
However, at that time, the only salvation from most epidemics was this kind of hygiene procedures: the sick should be isolated from the he althy as soon as possible. No one tried to treat leprosy - lepers were simply taken far away to die.
Ancient leper colonies
After a symbolic death for society, the sick person was forever exiled to places far from human settlements. Outcasts were forbidden to approach cities and other settlements. Answering the question: what is a leper colony, we can say that the ancient exclusion zones or leper colonies were a kind of prototype of such modern institutions.
Sick people in ancient times lived, in fact, in an open-air prison. Sometimes they built huts or sheltered from bad weather in caves. They ate the fruits they found. Those who left the territory of the shelter had to put on a heavy hoodie, lower the hood over their faces and hang a bell around their necks. Sick Crusaders worea "ratchet of Lazarus". All this was intended to warn others that a "living dead" was walking among them.
One of the oldest leper colonies was located, for example, in the Arbenut area, in Armenia. Its appearance dates back to about 270 AD.
In Europe and, in particular, in France, the opening of the first such institutions was associated with the appearance of crusaders who fell ill with leprosy, who brought it from campaigns. The largest number of European leper colonies were opened in the XII-XIII centuries.
Modern leper colony
And what is a leper colony of the 20th century? This is a special type of medical institution in which, depending on the severity of the disease, some patients lived permanently, some were placed for several years, and some were treated on an outpatient basis. Such specificity dictated the presence in the leprosarium of an inpatient and outpatient department, laboratories for detecting diseases and epidemiological control, as well as everything that was necessary for those living in this village.
On the territory of this medical institution, residential buildings with garden plots for patients, workshops in which patients could work as hard as they could, a shop and even their own boiler room were built. As a rule, service and medical staff lived in a conditionally separated zone, but not far away.
The leper colony in the USSR was financed by the budget, and in the capitalist countries it existed at the expense of charitable organizations and the Red Cross.
For example, one of the currentexisting institutions of this type - the Egyptian Abu Zaabal - is located 40 km from Cairo. It was built in 1933 and is still in operation today. The hospital has its own agricultural complex that feeds the sick and supplies them with vitamins.
However, today, when many drugs have been found that allow the disease to be transferred to a non-progressive stage, patients in most countries are not accepted to be placed in closed institutions.
Statistics
Russia at the beginning of the 19th century had 14 leper colonies. These were also medical and preventive institutions, but of the prison type. They were located mainly in the southern provinces and were supported by state funds. The sick lived there permanently, doing agricultural work and crafts.
Today, only three leper colonies remain on the territory of our country. One of them belongs to the Astrakhan Research Institute for the Study of Leprosy, the second - to the Branch of the State Scientific Center for Dermatovenereology. It is located in Sergiev Posad, Moscow Region.
Although today leprosy patients can get rid of their disease, its symptoms, causes and course are not fully understood. Research into this mysterious disease continues. Moreover, according to the World He alth Organization, in the middle of the 20th century, about 12 million carriers of the described pathology lived on the planet.
We hope that the terrible disease will still be completely defeated, and people will not have to find out what it is - a leper colony.
