Treatment of paucibacillary leprosy is with the medications dapsone, rifampicin, and clofazimine for six months. Treatment for multibacillary leprosy uses the same medications for 12 months. A number of other antibiotics may also be used. These treatments are provided free of charge by the World Health Organization.Leprosy is not highly contagious. People with leprosy can live with their families and go to school and work. In the 1980s, there were 5.2 million cases globally but went down to less than 0.2 million by 2020. Most new cases occur in 14 countries, with India accounting for more than half. In the 20 years from 1994 to 2014, 16 million people worldwide were cured of leprosy. About 200 cases per year are reported in the United States. Separating people affected by leprosy by placing them in leper colonies still occurs in some areas of India, China, areas in the African continent, and Thailand.Leprosy has affected humanity for thousands of years. The disease takes its name from the Greek word λέπρᾱ (léprā), from λεπῐ́ς (lepís; scale), while the term "Hansens disease" is named after the Norwegian physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen. Leprosy has historically been associated with social stigma, which continues to be a barrier to self-reporting and early treatment. Some consider the word leper offensive, preferring the phrase "person affected with leprosy". Leprosy is classified as a neglected tropical disease. World Leprosy Day was started in 1954 to draw awareness to those affected by leprosy.
The approach includes supporting an increase in health care professionals who understand the disease, and a coordinated and renewed political commitment that includes coordination between countries and improvements in the methodology for collecting and analysing data.Interventions in the "Global Leprosy Strategy 2016–2020: Accelerating towards a leprosy-free world":
Early detection of cases focusing on children to reduce transmission and disabilities
Enhanced healthcare services and improved access for people who may be marginalized
For countries where leprosy is endemic, further interventions include an improved screening of close contacts, improved treatment regimens, and interventions to reduce stigma and discrimination against people who have leprosy. Community-based interventions
In some instances in India, community-based rehabilitation is embraced by local governments and NGOs alike. Often, the identity cultivated by a community environment is preferable to reintegration, and models of self-management and collective agency independent of NGOs and government support have been desirable and successful. Notable cases
Josephine Cafrine of Seychelles had leprosy from the age of 12 and kept a personal journal that documented her struggles and suffering. It was published as an autobiography in 1923. Saint Damien De Veuster, a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium, himself eventually contracting leprosy, ministered to lepers who had been placed under a government-sanctioned medical quarantine on the island of Molokaʻi in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Baldwin IV of Jerusalem was a Christian king of Latin Jerusalem who had leprosy.