Leprosy

Above: latest magazine from the Leprosy Mission.

Leprosy is a horrible disease, insidious in the way it spreads and devastating in the ruin it causes.

Untreated, it can lead to disability and blindness. In many parts of the world the disease is regarded with abhorrence, leading sufferers to experience isolation, prejudice and discrimination. Even in the United Kingdom the law treats leprosy sufferers unfairly.

Although there is no preventative vaccine available, leprosy can be cured with a multi-drug therapy.

Roughly a quarter of a million new patients are diagnosed each year, but many more do not seek treatment early enough because of the terrible social stigma they will experience.

Since it is possible to eradicate this disease entirely, it is unacceptable that more effort is not being made to do so. The British government should be supplying free multi-drug therapy wherever it is needed around the world, and also using diplomatic staff to engage with those countries that are not doing enough to end social exclusion of leprosy sufferers. The United Kingdom is a rich and relatively powerful nation, with considerable powers of organization and an extensive state health service that could be focussed outwards - would it be so expensive if we were to automatically enrol all leprosy sufferers, wherever they are in the world, into the NHS and give them a basic level of British diplomatic protection?

Generally you have to ask yourself - if we do not take up this cause, who will?

Campaign to end discrimination against leprosy sufferers in the United Kingdom:
http://www.leprosymission.org.uk/news_events/advocacy.aspx

Just on the subject of what should be Britain's role in the world, there was an interesting article in The Times today by Philip Collins. In my view one of the ways we can demonstrate leadership is by asserting as a fundamental human right access to health care free at the point of delivery. The NHS model may be represented throughout the world as "unaffordable" but somehow we manage to pay for it without too much trouble.