nuzvid, andhra pradesh, india

​A holistic approach to leprosy care in Nuzvid, India

The St Catald Hospital opened in 1986 in Nuzvid, Andhra Pradesh. The leprosy centre was established in 1998, mainly to provide treatment and care for those affected by the disease. The centre also carries out awareness campaigns in local villages, holds mobile clinics and provides self-care advice for leprosy patients.

Other centres often refer leprosy patients to St Catald, due to its reputation for its high standard of treatment and care. The centre's emphasis on preventing deformities means that patients can avoid the social stigma that often accompanies leprosy; and it provides counselling to help patients cope with the emotional effects of their illness.

In the future, St Catald will continue to prevent deformities caused by leprosy, caring for ulcers and detecting and treating cases of leprosy as fast and early as possible. SFLG began funding this excellent centre in 2021. 

Veeramma (aged 69, lives in a residential home provided by St Catald)

Veeramma

When she was 21 years old, Veeramma was making a simple living, working in the home and fields with her husband. They already had a daughter and she hoped to have a son and live happily with her family. 

But Veeramma discovered a red, swollen patch on her hand, and later more patches on her body and legs. Following numbness in her hands and feet and an ulcer on her left foot, she decided to get treatment.

Doctors in her village were unable to make a diagnosis. She was eventually diagnosed at a leprosy hospital far away, where she was treated as an inpatient for three months. When Veeramma’s ulcer healed, she was able to return home.

Although government health workers continued to treat her at home, her symptoms worsened. Then, her worst fear came true when her husband left her and remarried. After the death of her parents, Veeramma came to rely on her daughter.

Some years later when her daughter’s husband died and her daughter could no longer support her, Veeramma spent many years ‘abandoned’ at a local hospital.

In 1998 she was finally moved to the St Catald Hospital, where she has been ‘happy and contented’ ever since. She says without them she: “would have died in a miserable condition”. Veeramma hopes one day to move back in with her daughter. 

Veeramma says: Now there is effective treatment for leprosy, early detection and treatment will cure this disease like any other disease”

Rambabu (aged 69, lives at home)

Rambabu with his wife and son

At only 12 years old, Rambabu was orphaned and had no one else to take care of him. He developed nodules on his ears which eventually spread throughout his face. Luckily a neighbour took Rambabu to the Assisi Hospital, a sister institution of St Catald. There he received treatment, and the nodules gradually disappeared, and his clawed hand regained some mobility. After treatment was completed, he moved to the Rehabilitation Centre at St Catald.

When he returned to his village a few years later, Rambabu began selling fruit and married an orphan girl. He was employed as a security guard at Assisi Hospital. He hopes that they will keep employing him as long as he is able to do it.

Rambabu says that without the support of St Catald, he would “have died in my younger age, due to the disease”. After carrying out contact tracing, Rambabu’s older siblings were also treated at this Centre. He and his wife have since had children, and he simply hopes to secure their future now. 

Abdul (aged 47, lives at home)

Abdul with his his wife, children and mother-in-law

Abdul was orphaned and completely alone at the age of seven. The local owner of a mechanical shed provided him with food in exchange for some work he carried out.

By around 12 years old, Abdul had developed patches and nodules all over his body. Some Sisters from the Assisi Hospital were carrying out a leprosy survey and came across Abdul and his symptoms. Abdul was terrified of who would look after him and that the shed owner might send him away.

The Sisters brought him to Assisi, and he began treatment. The doctors took great care of Abdul, helping treat the reactions that he had and providing physiotherapy. He stayed at the centre for many years, and says the staff were so kind and loving and that it really felt like home.

He was able to leave them once his deformities were cured and he was in good health. Abdul learned manual work whilst staying there which has been useful since he left. 

The centre helped Abdul build a house, and he has since married and had children. He works as a gardener in the centre, which allows him to lead a happy, family life, and send his children to school. His focus now is to secure their education and futures, and that “myself and my wife will live peacefully and see our grandchildren”. ​

It is a curable disease, if treated in time, deformity will not occur. I want the public to know the good service done by the centre and above all the generosity and good will of St. Francis Leprosy Guild who is giving financial support to the centre”.