Arresting leprosy is not difficult and needs nothing more than a couple of attendances at a clinic. But the damage left by the cured disease often needs reconstruction of the effected areas including the resetting of distorted fingers as in the picture above
The last page
,
introduced the
Leprosy Mission Hospital
in Naini near Allahabad. This page shows some images of the staff and patients in that hospital during the mid 1990s. The tension on the faces of the patients is often marked. Leprosy has always been difficult to contract, there is zero chance of infection being on the wards or working with patients if the simplest hygiene is observed.
Jacob removing the plaster casts from a young man's fingers. Leprosy does not discriminate between old or young, rich or poor
Jacob, a young physiotherapist at the time, was a typical example of the large numbers of Tamils who go to find work in the challenging climate of northern India.
The advent of antibiotics has meant that the physical advances of the leprosy bacteria are easily arrested. But it is an outstanding example of a social disease. It is a disgrace in many societies to admit to having leprosy, so it is not talked about or understood and this lets the bacteria flourish, and possible symptoms go unreported. As a result the disease spreads and gains a hold on new people.
The colour quality in some of these older slides, exposed to the Indian heat in their youth, is not too good; my apologies, I am not blaming screens this time.
And here he is applying plaster to a woman's hand to help the fingers resume their proper position
A man's hand is being inspected to see what movements are retained
The staff of the physiotherapy department
A school teacher has had his arm in a cast and the physiotherapist checks out the graffiti it has attracted
The teacher rests from introducing me to Hindi to look at the camera - with considerable tension
From the left: Kamleshwar, Mishra, Moti, Badna, Jiyalal, Ramakant, Dev, Nukhai, Crulab, (with the boy) Vijay in front. The physiotherapist on the left is Jacob Chelliah.
The men from one ward assembled for this group photo, and for their individual photos to be taken. Sadly I later learnt that none of the pictures (that I had sent to them all) had arrived. If anyone seeing this can help get these images, which I still have, to any of these people, please contact me.
The ward had rich and poor, old and young, high status and lower status individuals.
A lack of understanding lets any of us catch leprosy
This man has had leprosy in his foot. It is inspected in the comfortable shade of a courtyard tree - shown
on the last page.
The wound is typical...
...because he had no feeling on the sole of his foot an abscess has been allowed to form...
...and result in loss of tissue, without his knowing about it - he cannot feel this at all
These patients are trying to get the effected areas of muscle working again by exercise and rubbing.
Women and men sit apart in the same room as this is an area of India with many followers of Islam
And the kitchen staff who provided excellent simple meals on a minuscule budget, with a constant show of light heartedness in the face of considerable pain, tension and social isolation. Too many people still regard those with leprosy as somehow unclean and that the sufferers' condition is transmittable
The next page
takes you out into the town of Naini where the Leprosy Mission Hospital is situated.
The last page introduced the hospital
To another Indian clinic in the Mumbai suburbs
(This page on Chambur has been greatly extended this week)
To food preparation in Vietnam
