MARRAKECH - MILITARY HOSPITAL (PHOTO)
leprosy (or Hansen's disease) is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae (bacterium close to the causative agent of tuberculosis identified by the Norwegian Armauer Gerhard Hansen in 1873) affecting the peripheral nerves, skin and mucous membranes, and causing severe disability. It is endemic in some tropical countries (particularly Asia).
Leprosy was incurable and very long crippling, resulting in 1909 at the request of the Society of Tropical Medicine, "the systematic exclusion of lepers and their grouping into leper colonies as an essential measure of prophylaxis.
now treatable with antibiotics, public health efforts are made to the treatment of patients, equipment in prosthodontics subjects cured, and prevention.
Leprosy has been known since antiquity. The first descriptions date back to 600 BC It is found in the ancient civilizations of China, Egypt, India. It has also long believed in an Asian origin, they said it would then spread by the warriors of Alexander the Great then by the Phoenicians and Romans. Work on the genome of the bacteria at the Pasteur Institute (Mark Monnot, Stewart Cole, published in Science 13 May 2005 [1]) thus indicate an origin is Africa or the Middle East before arriving in Asia in Europe. She would arrive in West Africa with northern European explorers, then slavery would have spread in the Caribbean and South America.
The Bible contains passages referring to the "leprosy", both in the First Testament and the New. We can not know if this is the same disease: This term was indeed used for many diseases of skin origin and severity vary widely. The old Jewish law obliged the priests to recognize leprosy (Leviticus 14:1-57). In the New Testament, Jesus healed lepers.
The earliest texts bear witness, leprosy has always represented a threat, and the lepers shunned by society, rejected by their communities and families. It is still often the case today.
Leprosy has given rise to measures of segregation and social exclusion, sometimes hereditary, as in the case of Cagots South-west France. The decline of leprosy in Europe began in the sixteenth century without there ale a satisfactory explanation [2].
In 1873, the Norwegian Armauer Hansen discovered the bacterium responsible for this disease.
* past 20 years more than 12 million people have been cured of leprosy.
* Its prevalence has decreased by 90% and leprosy has been eradicated in 108 of the 122 affected countries.
* Leprosy is no longer a public health problem worldwide since its worldwide prevalence is currently less than 1 case per 100 000 inhabitants.
* It remains a public health problem in 14 countries Africa and Asia (including India).
* The medical treatment for leprosy was discovered by a researcher from Venezuela.
TODAY IN MOROCCO
Leprosy still exists in Morocco. Dozens of new cases occur each year. A single center in the country is expected to welcome hundreds of lepers and some are in process, "reports The Gazette of Morocco. A hospital that is tremendously means," they are often involved hospitalized patients willingly certain internal tasks. " Thus, it is not surprising to find in the 14 pavilions of the center "a maid, a chauffeur and even a nurse's aide in white coats ... leprosy."
This center is supported by the Moroccan Association of Agricultural and application training (AMAAF), "an NGO that has made living in the center a chance of rehabilitation for patients who succeed each other," says the 'Moroccan weekly. Indeed, "an agreement signed with the Ministry of Education ensures a normal primary school for lepers under 15 years and literacy classes for adults who wish". For the latter, Learning a trade is also expected. "A carpentry workshop for men, sewing, embroidery and tapestry for women."
These activities also play the role of a work rehabilitation. "A kind of physiotherapy they exert themselves and to them, and more profitable. Embroidery, sewing and carpentry work the nerves of the fingers affected by leprosy, which may be permanently paralyzed by lack or absence Activity ", says Dr. Amin Latifi, a dermatologist specializing in leprosy and director of the center. The Gazette
Morocco also highlights the failure of the Department of Health, which has avoided for a long time "to communicate about the disease by creating fear psychosis. Official figures on leprosy in Morocco would have been made public until the late 1990s." However, leprosy is no longer the severity of the past. Nowadays it is curable. Moreover, according to Moroccan statistics, the number of lepers is low and the numbers are decreasing every year, reports the magazine.
"Currently, the national center for leprosy has a hundred new cases including 43 patients hospitalized in 2005 (36 adults and 7 children only). In 2004, 62 patients who had been registered and are hoped to reduce their number in 2006. "The number of patients accommodated in the center would be" representative cases of leprosy embedded in all Morocco. "The goal of the Ministry of Health would be to completely eliminate the disease by 2010.
SOURCE: www.courrierint.com
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