THE LEPROSY CAMP

By Lina Paulitsch

On the outskirts of Cape Coast a village-like camp is home to people suffering from leprosy, forming a comforting and unprejudiced environment.

Leprosy is a chronic disease that has been existing for more than 4000 years. Caused by bacteria, it is spread from person to person by droplets. The disease affects the victim’s skin, mucous membranes and nerve cells.

When thinking of leprosy, pictures of deformed fingers and limbs are mostly the first association. However, this horrible extent of the disease is a myth that has stigmatized its victims in history. As the bacteria affect the victim’s nerves, he is unable to feel pain, which is why he easily wounds himself without the urge of getting medical help. Without treatment these open lesions result in other infections such as tetanus, which, secondarily, cause body parts to fall off or to become shortened and deformed. If the wounds are disinfected, there is no danger of such a terrible stage of leprosy.

All over the world, people with leprosy are still outcasts and often seen as cursed or bedeviled. The stigma attached to the disease is also due to the fact that it is contagious. Yet again, this assumption is folklore: in order to become infected with leprosy, one has to be in long, physical contact with the infected person, sharing the same bathroom, for example. But above all, each person’s individual immune system plays the major part, as only 5 to 10 per cent of humans are able to fall sick with leprosy.

In Western countries leprosy is generally regarded as exterminated. Still, in 2002 over 763,000 people were infected, mostly living in emerging and developing countries, such as India, Brazil, Mozambique and Tanzania. This figure can be directly linked to the poor hygienic standards that exist in these countries, such as polluted water, little living space and poor nutrition. Under these conditions the bacteria can spread far more easily and, additionally, secondary infections as well. Another reason for leprosy in developing countries is the lack of medical care. During the last 20 years, over 15 million people could be entirely cured from leprosy with new antibiotics, which kill the bacteria. However, people in the Third World still catch it unnecessarily, as the medication and health care is too expensive. Furthermore, the stigma keeps them from admitting to the disease.

Bearing all these difficulties in mind, a group of volunteers in Cape Coast decided to effectively help people with leprosy: a few years ago, eight independent organizations fundraised, set up and built the so-called Leprosy Camp, consisting of small houses for a few hundred people to live in. The major goal was to form a place and a community for people with leprosy, where they would not feel harassed or uncomfortable for their disease. Above all, the volunteers would take care of their medical needs and supply them with medication and bandages for free.

Initially built for just people with leprosy, their families can now live at the camp as well. Over the course of the years, a community has been established, which is certainly very important to leprosy patients. Inside the camp, there is no stigma that could make them outcasts of society, as even the children grow up around it, without being afraid or prejudiced. The residents of the leprosy camp support and help each other with their daily lives. As a way of getting profit many people try to sell their own crafts, such as hats, jewellery or clothes.

One of the community members, who is not a leprosy patient but takes care of them, is James. Coming from the Western Region, he moved to the leprosy camp two years ago in order to support his granduncle and stayed in the house when he passed away. At camp he has been helping treating old people and orphans, whose parents had lost their lives to the disease or are unable to take care of them. Sometimes, he also supports the volunteers in explaining things to them, concerning the camp, people and traditions. “I like the camp, the people here are very friendly”, James says. His actual profession, though, is painting: Spread all over his little veranda, there are paintings hanging on the walls, showing traditionally African sceneries and people. Being his only financial support, he sells them to the community or people that pass by.   

Currently, the NGO ‘Projects Abroad’ is sending two medical volunteers to Leprosy Camp: Rose Kelly from Australia and Rebekka Kern from Germany. Every day one of them comes to the camp and helps the residents with medical treatment. “We clean the Leprosy patients’ wounds, so they can’t get infected, redress them and give them antibiotics”, says Rose Kelly in an interview about the volunteers’ duties. “We also distribute bandages and other supply to people, who don’t want us to dress their wounds but do it themselves. Also, we help other people that live in the camp, if they are sick or have any other problems, as they generally come and ask us about it. We can help with treatment, give out drugs or take him or her to hospital”

With a bag full of gloves, bandages and gauze the volunteers walk from one house to another, visiting leprosy patients, who are unable to walk. For the others, there are benches in front of the camp, where people can come on their own to receive treatment. Through this close, daily contact the volunteers have established an emotional connection to their work as well: “We have a pretty good relationship to the patients - we know about their lives, we ask how they are going. We also have a really good relationship with the kids, as they like us very much”, Rose says.

With a community center and Sister Alice from Ireland, who gives out aids and distributes the money, the camp is fairly well-organized. Still, there are many things to be improved. “The conditions are pretty good for the fact that the camp is run and set up by volunteers, but it is definitely not the cleanest place to dress wounds. To have the ability for their wounds to get better, it needs to be clean, sterile environment. So, I think it could be better in terms of cleanliness, but it is also the people here that have to improve it, saying ‘We need to clean up the rubbish, we need to clean up the dirt’”, Rose says.

Leprosy is a disease directly connected to poor hygiene and poverty. But as for this fact, it can be fought and cured, in terms of education, prevention and financial support. To exterminate leprosy for good, people have to know everything about it in order to understand its dangers and to dispose of the stigma still existing in many countries. Secondly, the hygienic standards have to improve to avoid new infections with leprosy and secondary diseases. And lastly, medical treatment has to become accessible for everyone to actively fight leprosy. The Leprosy Camp in Cape Coast aims to help with all three points and proves to be direct and effective: volunteers take care of people in need, providing them not only with medical supply but also with comfort. Institutions as this are an essential step in the fight against leprosy and their importance for the future cannot be emphasized enough. If help continues to arrive, the extermination of leprosy will soon be reality.