ABOUT leprosy
Every two minutes someone is diagnosed with leprosy. That’s over seven hundred people a day, including 10,000 children each year. Half of all countries in the world today report leprosy.*
Leprosy affects the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the world.
Leprosy is curable using an antibiotic treatment called Multidrug Therapy. But anyone living with undiagnosed leprosy is at risk of developing visible, life-changing disabilities (including clawed hands, drop-foot, blindness and tropical ulcers). They are also at risk of spreading the disease.
Leprosy affects the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the world.
Leprosy is curable using an antibiotic treatment called Multidrug Therapy. But anyone living with undiagnosed leprosy is at risk of developing visible, life-changing disabilities (including clawed hands, drop-foot, blindness and tropical ulcers). They are also at risk of spreading the disease.
A lack of understanding about leprosy leads to stigma and social isolation for those with the disease. Leprosy is one of the most stigmatised diseases in the world. In some legal systems, the suspicion alone that someone has the disease results in rejection. Today, across the world, there are still over 100 apartheid-style laws which lead to the violation of civil, political and social rights of those with leprosy.**
We think there are up to four million people worldwide today who are affected by leprosy, either undiagnosed, or living with disabilities caused by leprosy, or subject to leprosy stigma.
Will you help us find, diagnose, treat and care for people with leprosy and see an end to this terrible disease?
For any questions about leprosy please read our Q&A
For further details please read about Leprosy
To download the fact sheet
We think there are up to four million people worldwide today who are affected by leprosy, either undiagnosed, or living with disabilities caused by leprosy, or subject to leprosy stigma.
Will you help us find, diagnose, treat and care for people with leprosy and see an end to this terrible disease?
For any questions about leprosy please read our Q&A
For further details please read about Leprosy
To download the fact sheet
Prodip Shing, a patient at Dhanjuri Leprosy Centre, Dinajpur, Bangladesh
*World Health Organization WER September 2023
** Special Rapporteur on discrimination against persons with leprosy (Hansen’s disease), OHCHR
** Special Rapporteur on discrimination against persons with leprosy (Hansen’s disease), OHCHR
Read more about leprosy in the Catholic Answers Encyclopedia
Thanks to our supporters, this child from Dindigul Village will not grow up afraid of leprosy
