WEBVTT - How Leper Colonies Worked 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.320 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:20.880 There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry should Know. Okay, unclean? Unclean? 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:24.520 What is that from? I think that's what people with 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:27.639 leprosy were. They had to say, They had to like 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:30.520 ring a bell and say unclean when they walked through 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:34.519 town to people would avoid them. I knew about the bell. Yeah, 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:36.560 I think they would have to say unclean. Early sets 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:40.280 the story I heard man alive. Yeah, so he says 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:46.640 it all. It really does. Leprosy sinks stigma. Yeah, well yeah, 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:50.120 Handsome's disease. I think is the preferred term for it 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:54.240 these days, is it? Uh huh? I knew what was 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:56.480 called that, but I have like every article I saw, 0:00:56.640 --> 0:01:00.400 I didn't even mention that. I don't know it's I 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:03.480 don't know who it's who's preferring it. Mr Hanson, I 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:07.400 guess whoever he is. Well, he's a nineteenth century I think, 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:13.160 um Swedish or Danish physician, the guy who just who 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:18.280 who discovered the actual bacteria that that does it. Yeah, 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:23.119 because we're talking leprosy and it's a bacterial infection after all. Yeah, 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.760 I think when folks hear the word leprosy or lepro colony, 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:28.800 they a lot of times may not even know what 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:32.000 the heck it is. And um, yeah, I guess we 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:33.800 should start off with just talking about the disease a 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:36.440 little bit. Yeah, it's an ancient disease. I actually found 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:41.880 something from um the beginning of two fourteen, and they 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:47.400 discovered a new a new form of leprosy, new to humans, 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:50.360 but it's actually very old. But the the fact that 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.800 they can take this new form, the newly discovered form, 0:01:55.080 --> 0:02:00.000 and compared to the one we've known about for centuries. Um, 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:04.240 they actually found that the fact that they diverged so 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:08.640 long ago makes them suspect that it's possible that leprosy 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:16.080 Hanson's disease is the oldest infectious disease to humans around. Really. Yeah, 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:19.120 they think that it definitely originated in Africa, that it 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:23.119 traveled out with humans in However, many waves that went 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:25.720 out of Africa spread around the rest of the world. 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:30.120 And one of the tell tale signs that it's extremely 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:34.160 old is that it only infects humans. As far as 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:39.960 we know, it doesn't infect any other animals except supposedly armadillos, 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:43.560 and they think that armadillos caught it from humans is 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:45.760 recently as a hundred or two hundred years ago. Well, 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:48.240 that's why if you're gonna see leprosy in the United States, 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:51.000 you're probably gonna find it in Texas or Louisiana because 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:57.040 the armadillos. Yeah, crazy weird, there is leprosy here, I guess. Um, 0:02:57.080 --> 0:02:59.400 I bet most people think that it's not in the 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:03.120 United States at all, but um, it is. It's super rare. Uh. 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:05.400 The CDC says they get about a hundred new cases 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:11.280 a year in the US um, which is super super low, 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:14.320 and only about twenty to forty of those are people 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:18.240 born um in the United States, like usually the other 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.919 forty eight I guess are bringing it in from another 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:28.200 country and have it for years without knowing it. Because 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:32.600 leprosy generally takes four to six years to manifest itself. 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:35.200 I've seen ten to twenty. Well, I mean it can't 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:37.840 take that long, but generally four to six years, which 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:43.320 is a big problem because first of all, it's it's rare. 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:45.880 But even in the parts of the world where it's 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:48.800 not all that rare, like you can be infected with leprosy, 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:52.200 like you said, for many, many years. And even if 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:56.120 you do start to show symptoms, they don't just automatically 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.640 point to leprosy. They can be skin rashes, respiratory problems 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:03.880 or something like that. So by the time a doctor says, oh, 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:07.880 you have Handson's disease, you're in big trouble. Or it 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:11.520 used to be the case. Yes, but now it is 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:15.200 completely curable, which is great news. UM. It is also 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:20.600 not contagious at all, hardly UM. Human beings have a 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:25.320 natural immunity. So the the biblical times of uh of 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.480 in in the Middle Ages where lepers were uh and 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:30.680 we'll get to all this, but when they were thought 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:32.600 like if you come anywhere close that you're going to 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:35.279 get this dread of disease, it's never been true. Yeah. 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:40.040 The thing is is as ancient as leprosy is. UM. 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:43.760 They still don't know exactly how it's transmitted. They assume 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:47.200 that it's transmitted like most other bacterial infections, like either 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:51.239 through um saliva or mucus, through a sneeze or something 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:55.239 like that, um or through cracks in the skin, and UM. 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:58.200 I saw both that it's either very hard to catch 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.599 or it's not that already catch I saw that it 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:03.719 doesn't live outside of the human body for very long, 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:08.600 or it can still remain potent in um, like just 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:14.360 basically on some sort of surface or whatever. Yeah. Um, 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.119 but that that the last idea that it doesn't serve, 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:21.000 that it doesn't stay active outside the human body for 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:23.680 very long, is supported by the fact that they've never 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:26.719 been able to come up with the leprosy vaccine because 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.360 it can exist outside of the human body, which is 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:32.640 another idea or another reason why they think it's a 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:37.760 very ancient human disease because it's specifically tailored for humans. 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:41.600 And do you know how how it works? Yeah? Sure, 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.640 Well you want to talk about how it actually what 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:49.320 it is, and then how it affects you. Well, it 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:54.160 is their little microbes called Microbacterium lepray l e p 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:58.240 r a e, their little tiny rod shaped microbes, and 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:01.880 they infect the body, and you will get skin sores 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.800 and nerve damage and muscle weakness, and you're you're gonna 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.480 not be able to feel pain, which leads to more problems, 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.320 like you will end up getting amputations because of gang 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.480 green because you injured your toes or your your hands 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:17.960 and you don't even know it. Yeah, Um. And the 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:20.359 way that it does that on a cellular level is 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:26.160 the um. The leprosy Bacterium hijacks what are called your 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:32.279 schwan cells, your schwan cells. Um. They typically make some 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:38.040 sort of fatty coating for um muscle and nervous system tissue, 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:43.520 right okay. And it turns schwan cells into stem cells, 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:46.960 which is pretty magical if you ask me, and it says, 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:51.320 go forth and go infect um the muscle tissue of 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.440 this human and let's see what we can do. So 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:59.640 like again, it's basically perfectly tailored to infect and hijack 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.200 the human body and affect you in all these horrible, 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.160 terrible ways. Like it shortens your fingers is one of 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:11.560 the symptoms, meaning that they just kind of start going 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:15.960 back like pencil nubs that have been sharpened too many times. Yeah, 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:19.000 it was. If you're a Biblical scholar, you have seen 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.880 the word leprosy a lot in the Bible. But um, 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:25.360 it didn't necessarily mean this specific disease. It could have 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:29.040 been a variety of things like eczema or cirrhosis. Because 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:34.080 the word leprosy in the King James Bible in Hebrew. Uh, 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:38.080 Sarah could be a host of diseases that kind of 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:41.560 make you look gnarly on the outside. But there is 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:46.280 a passage in at least in Um I think Leviticus, 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:51.840 which is old man, yeah uh, and it says that 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:55.440 you Hebrews are supposed to keep an eye on anybody 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.040 who has a skin sore, and if that skin sore 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.600 starts to spread, that person the leper in there to 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:06.000 live outside of camp. There's kind of an early understanding 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.280 of contagious disease. Yeah, they didn't necessarily know what it 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:12.640 was or what was going on, but they knew enough 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:16.200 to say, you who hang out over there, right, because 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.720 we've seen before that if people with hands the disease 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:22.920 hang out with everybody else, other people can catch it. Yeah. 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:25.280 And that was the beginning of what would end up 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:28.440 being leper colonies. And we'll talk about that a little 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:40.640 more right after this break. So at first there were 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:45.839 no leper colonies per se. They were generally just shuttled 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:49.679 to the outskirts of the city or camp in London. 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:56.840 Queen Matilda and one one one eight uh founded I 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:59.800 guess a camp that people could still come back into 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:02.800 t own and like beg for money and stuff, but 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:05.360 they were always to go back to their camp at 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:07.840 the end of the day. Yeah, just you know, just 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:11.960 basically open land. It wasn't necessarily like some awful place 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:15.120 to be UM. A lot of times, like these wealthy 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:20.080 landowners would endow this land to keep these people there. Yeah, 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:26.160 the because they were sequestered or ostracizeders just kept outside. UM. 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:33.000 People with leprosy effectively formed subculture or um a subset 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:36.680 of the population. So you would have, like say in 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:40.920 a medieval town, like the Jewish section and the the 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:45.920 um lepers section, and then like the uh the blacksmiths 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:48.839 or whatever, and the executioner had to stay outside of town. 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:51.400 So they were just like the right and they were 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:54.319 but I mean, they were like a a subset of 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:59.760 society UM. And they were very frequently the butt of 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.680 all sorts of reigns of terror. Like people would be like, well, 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:09.200 everybody's getting sick, so somebody poisoned the wells and it 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:11.800 was probably the lepers, and then the lepers all the 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:14.640 lepers would be rounded up and killed. So lepers UM 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:19.800 definitely were subjected to execution. As recently as I think UM, 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:22.840 I saw the nineteen thirties and in nineteen thirty seven 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:26.400 in China, soldiers were like hunting down lepers and executing 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:29.319 them for being lepers. Yeah, I mean, I think we've 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:31.320 talked about this a lot on the show. People fear 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.680 what they don't understand as a society, and they didn't 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:36.800 understand leprosy. They didn't know where it came from. They 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:40.120 thought it might be hereditary, they thought it was super contagious, 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.760 like just touching someone would infect you and so uh 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:46.880 and just because of the appearance that someone with leprosy 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:49.760 would have it, you know, they didn't want to see them. 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:52.440 They wanted them away so they couldn't be infected, and 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:54.320 so they didn't have to look at it, right. Okay. 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:57.959 So the thing is is, up until the nineteenth century, 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.800 basically all the they were a subset of society. They 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:04.720 were still technically part of society. Lepers were even though 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:06.760 they lived on the outskirts away from town, they were 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:10.160 still part of society. In the nineteenth century, there was 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:12.680 a movement to basically say, like, we don't want you 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:15.480 to have anything to do with us any longer, Like 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:17.920 you go over there, like you're not a part of 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:20.960 our society any longer. You're your own thing, just go 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.600 away forever. And there was actually a law in Illinois, 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:27.679 I guess in Chicago and ordinance. It was called an 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:33.360 ugly law. Yeah, and eight one. Uh said, Uh, any 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:37.040 person whose disease are deformed so as to be unsightly 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:40.200 or disgusting object has to stay away off the streets 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:43.240 and away from public places. Yeah, because that's how they 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:46.520 talked in Chicago. So I know, so I've seen Saturday 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:51.160 a lot before. Uh So, no longer are you allowed 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:54.120 in town to beg for thing like, Yeah, we we 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:56.240 decided like we don't want to look at you any longer, 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.880 so you are not a part of our culture any longer. 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.280 And that was in Chicago alone. This this happened elsewhere. 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:08.319 There was an outbreak in um the eighteen fifties in Hawaii, 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:12.679 and the Hawaiian government said, um, yeah, I think we're 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:16.000 going to finally just say you guys can't be part 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:19.959 of our culture any longer. And so they made leprosy 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:24.960 a crime. So if you had leprosy, you were a criminal, 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:32.560 and therefore you could be excommunicated, ostracized, banished as under law. Yeah, 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:35.480 that was when it was Hawaii was an independent monarchy. 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.640 And uh, in eighteen sixty five they passed the Act 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.000 to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy. And like you said, 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:45.240 they might as well have been they were criminals. Um. 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.480 And as the article opens up in eighteen seventy nine, 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:52.000 they describe a night in January where they police officers 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:56.400 rounded up a bunch of people with stricken with leprosy 0:12:56.840 --> 0:13:02.360 and basically sent them off on a boat to Kalapapa Peninsula. 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:05.320 And so this is your new home and you're not 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:09.400 ever gonna leave. So it makes the the analogy of 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.160 a prison. But uh, it points out that even in 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:14.520 a prison you can get visitors and you may get 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:16.520 out one day when your sentence runs out. If you 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.360 have leprosy, you could not have any contact and you 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:23.480 were there for life, very very messed up. Yeah, and 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:29.199 that apparently for leper colonies that were run like prisons, 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:33.960 where the patients were treated like prisoners. Yeah, they weren't 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.400 being attended to like a hospital. No, it was like 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:40.280 you're in jail. Yeah. Uh. That there was a particularly 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:43.400 difficult for say, like the warden of the jail because 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:48.160 you couldn't you couldn't use the same kind of carrots 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.240 and sticks that you could on a typical prisoner because 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:54.720 there was no hope that you were ever going to 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.200 leave the leper colony. And that was part of the point, 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:00.679 like it was your relationship with so ide at large 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:04.360 was severed and you were never coming back. Kids were 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:08.959 taken from their families um at very young ages, like 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:13.040 knowing that they were never going to see them again. Yeah. 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:15.440 This one guy. That was a quote from a superintendent 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:19.240 of a South African leper colony on Robin Island. His 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:22.920 name was sp Imp and he said in his notes 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.480 in the eight nineties, you cannot starve them, you cannot 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:27.600 flog them. All you can do is deprived them of 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:31.920 their liberty, which is really sad. You know. So a 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.840 lot of a lot of places set up actual prisons inland, 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:40.400 but a lot of countries said, yeah, that island over 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:42.760 there that nobody wants, you're gonna make that a leper colony. 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:45.160 So there were places in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean, 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.560 in the Pacific um off of South Africa, like you 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:52.360 just said. But one of the most famous leper colonies 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:56.000 of all time was that one. I think it's colat 0:14:56.400 --> 0:15:00.680 Papa Papa if I know my native Hawaiian, and it 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:05.040 would be Ka Papa Peninsula on Molokai. And in eighteen 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.960 sixty six, a year after they enacted that um leprosy 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:13.360 criminal Code in Hawaii, they set it up. And it 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:17.400 was different because you didn't need any fences or walls 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:20.480 or anything like that, just the natural surrounding of the place. 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:22.840 It was a peninsula, so it's surrounded on three sides 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:24.960 by water. And then it just so happened that on 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:28.040 that fourth side that was connected to land, there's a 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:31.760 sheer two thousand foot cliff. So they were trapped. They 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:33.800 were trapped, but they were trapped in paradise and it 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:37.040 had an effect. It had a different effect it did, 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:38.840 and we will talk about that effect right up with 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:44.600 this break. So, Josh, you were talking about the different 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:49.000 effect that uh, this leper colony in Hawaii had because 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:52.400 it wasn't it was Hawaii after all. Yeah, you know, 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:54.280 I I don't want to make light of it. But 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:56.440 it was a nice place. It was very fertile. Um, 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:59.240 they grew vegetables. Um, they had a lot of food supplies. 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:05.080 Local fruits were rampant, and um. There was a Belgian 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:09.160 born Roman Catholic priest name Reverend Joseph da Voster who 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:12.680 went by Father Damien, and he really made a huge 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.760 difference in the life of these people. Um tried to 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:18.600 make it as normal sort of like a village as 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:20.760 he could. You know, they built the schools, they built 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:25.880 um churches. Uh. He started choirs and planted trees, started 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:29.040 a band. So he gave these people a life like 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:30.920 as much of a normal life as they could have. 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.760 He treated them like people, which like human beings yeah, 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:39.040 um so. And not just human beings, but also people 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:43.160 who had an infectious disease like patients. Yeah, patients who 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:45.840 um could still walk and talk and move around and 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.640 and needed some sort of distraction or some sort of fulfillment. 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.000 Father Damien came and and and gave this to these people. 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.120 He also badgered the government for money, which was good 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:57.560 because they actually had an advocate for the first time. 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:02.320 It was basically like the Fifth Avenue or Regulars, but 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:08.320 on the leprec Colony in Hawaii, Yes right. Unfortunately, very sadly, 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:12.720 Father Damien himself got leprosy and died at the young 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.280 age of forty nine and eight eighty nine, but he 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.680 was canonized as a saint SAT hundred and twenty years 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:21.280 later during the Big SAT sweep of oh nine. So 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:23.600 that was that's a pretty neat ending to that story 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:30.919 for him. Um and that the Lepred Colony and Kalaupapa Peninsula. 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:33.000 And I'm proud of myself for saying that one. Right 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.680 that is now a national park. It was created or 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:39.359 turned into a national park in nineteen eighty. But the 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:43.000 crazy thing is there's still people that live there, at 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:46.520 least as recently as two thousand three. What do you 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:50.239 mean people that live there, like people with rosy Um. 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:53.560 There's a guy I saw, I guess in two thousand three. 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.560 There were a lot of people that were that were 0:17:56.680 --> 0:17:59.239 told they could leave or something. I think they were 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:01.920 just waiting for the last generation to die out. And 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:05.760 they said, you know what, we've got this thing kind 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:08.280 of licked here in the United States. So if you 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:11.080 guys want to leave, go ahead. And some people said, 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:15.440 I've spent my literally my entire life here. I don't 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:17.040 want to leave. This is my home. So it's a 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:21.800 national park with inhabitants, which is rare. Yeah, that's a 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:24.520 good point. Uh. In the nineteen twenties in the US, 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:26.840 UM we started to change our tune a little bit, 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:29.840 and the U. S. Public Health Service said, you know what, 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:33.639 let's start a leper colony in Carville, Louisiana. It's actually 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:37.399 a hospital of sorts where we treat these people and 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:39.879 try and make their life better and defined try and 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:43.560 find a cure, which is I think what directly led 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:48.920 to the first drugs in the nineteen forties being established, 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:53.000 one called promn um that apparently is a pretty nasty 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:56.320 way to treat it because the injections were so painful, 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.560 but it was a good start. So UM it was painful, 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:03.840 apparently they figured out but it wasn't antibiotic that did work, 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:07.200 and they figured out that if you added it to 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:12.119 a cocktail of other drugs, Apparently it was easier to 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:14.880 take um because it was in pill form, I think 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:18.160 is what they changed it to in the fifties where 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:20.880 sixties um, and then they added it to other drugs 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:24.879 because the the bacteria was starting to get resistant to 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:27.920 this antibiotic alone. They came up with a cocktail in 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:31.879 the sixties or seventies and now have a regiment that 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:36.760 can cure cure um leprosy in six months. And it 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:39.919 all came out of this leopro colony at Carville, Louisiana, 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:43.720 And there's a really really neat documentary called Triumph Fat 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:47.720 Carville about that, about how this place in Louisiana was 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:52.200 the place where humanity licked leprosy. And it's Carver Louisiana 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:54.800 is named after James Carville's family, and he's in it. 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:57.399 He talks a lot about it. Yeah, he grew up 0:19:57.480 --> 0:19:59.240 like down the road from it. I could listen to 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:01.320 him talk just that accent, for sure, I love it. 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:04.280 But apparently like there was this kind of open secret 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:09.880 that uh inhabitants would just leave every once in a while, 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:12.320 and there was like a bar nearby where they would 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:15.159 go and like drink beers and everything. They just sneak 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:19.120 out and sneak back in drunk, like in the fifties 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:21.639 or whatever. For everybody has kind of left them alone, 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:26.000 and they did their own thing and domentary. It took, 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:30.000 obviously a cure um for leprosy to begin to change 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:33.000 the the stigma, and that I did start to turn 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:36.840 on that stigma in the nineteen sixties and lepro colonies 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.720 started to close one by one. Um. I think in 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:45.840 Japan there were one of the last nations to quarantine patients. Uh, 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:50.760 they ended it in nine. I think in Romania there 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:54.440 is still one colony where supposedly there were a few 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:59.399 elderly patients still there. But Indias, where it's a huge problem, 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.800 still not a huge problem, but the biggest problem. Well, 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:06.720 there's a lot of debate over just how big of 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:12.280 a problem leprosy is. Apparently the World Health Organization has said, uh, 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:16.359 we basically want to eradicate leprosy, and so a lot 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:18.760 of people accuse them of fudging the numbers. Is one 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:21.040 doctor put it like the best way to eradicate a 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:25.439 diseases to stop reporting. So there's between say, I think 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:28.520 the World Health Organization says a hundred thousand, two hundred 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:32.240 fifty thousand new cases a year, and this one doctor, 0:21:32.680 --> 0:21:38.000 who admittedly has to do with this um leprosy vaccine, uh, 0:21:38.119 --> 0:21:40.160 says no, I think it's more between like a million 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:42.280 and two and a half million new cases a year. 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:44.600 Those are new cases. Yeah, I thought there were less 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:47.480 than two hundred thousand. Period. The reporting is all over 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:51.720 the place, and it's questioned. That's all I can say 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:55.720 about that. India, Brazilian, Indonesia the top three countries and 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:58.760 I know that in India. Um, there's a colony in 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:02.920 Casturba gro Um near New Delhi, and it's it's still 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:06.080 has that stigma there. Uh. There there are people there 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:09.439 that are curative leprosy that stay there because their families 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:13.600 don't want them back. Um, if you have leprosy, you 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:17.439 are still likely to be ostracized away from your family 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:20.680 because it has They just think it reflects badly. If 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:22.720 you have like a boy and a girl and the 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:24.880 boy has leprosy and the girl doesn't like that, girl 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:27.159 won't even be able to find a husband because the 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:31.479 brother in law has leprosy. So they're still sending them 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:34.840 behind closed doors, which is super sad because it's just 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:37.440 a disease like any other and it's very treatable. It's 0:22:37.520 --> 0:22:39.640 because of the stigma of how it makes you look, 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:43.000 you know. Uh. And I saw this thing that was 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:47.879 an inmate in an Ohio prison this week that was 0:22:48.000 --> 0:22:51.800 just treated for leprosy. Uh. He was just discharged from 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:55.639 Ohio State Medical Center, House State University Medical Center, the 0:22:55.840 --> 0:23:01.879 Ohio State Medical Center, and he was just treated for 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:04.520 like a few days. Apparently, once you start this drug cocktail, 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:06.520 they can cure you in six months. But you're not 0:23:06.600 --> 0:23:09.560 even infectious after like a few days of it. So 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:12.200 they put him back into prison and he he had 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:15.840 it before he you know, he had had it for years. Uh, man, 0:23:15.920 --> 0:23:18.200 how did you get it in Armadillo or something? Now 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:21.520 he was he was from I think of Micronesia, so 0:23:21.680 --> 0:23:24.080 he they think he got it there, brought it over here, 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:26.400 didn't know he had it. Uh, ended up in jail 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:28.720 and make sure it's what he's in jail for. Man, 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:31.359 But um, not for having leprosy. I know that. Not 0:23:31.600 --> 0:23:34.080 not in the US, buddy. But they basically said, all right, 0:23:34.200 --> 0:23:36.640 you're going back to jail. Not nothing to worry about 0:23:36.680 --> 0:23:39.800 going back to prison. He was like, uh great, Yeah, 0:23:40.440 --> 0:23:43.520 and I'm sure the prisoners are probably worried because they 0:23:43.600 --> 0:23:47.200 don't listen to this podcast. Yeah, well some of them do. 0:23:47.520 --> 0:23:50.600 It's probably working in his advantage. Yeah, like stay away 0:23:50.640 --> 0:23:53.719 from that guy. Yeah, unless he's sad and lonely, then 0:23:54.000 --> 0:23:57.760 that's different. So if this kind of got to you 0:23:58.280 --> 0:24:01.480 and you want to do something World Leprosy Days January, 0:24:03.000 --> 0:24:05.160 that's right, we're a little early. We're kicking off World 0:24:05.240 --> 0:24:08.680 Leprosy Day in November. And if you want to know 0:24:08.760 --> 0:24:11.720 more about leprosy or Handson's disease. You can type either 0:24:11.800 --> 0:24:13.600 one of those in the search part. How stuff works 0:24:13.640 --> 0:24:16.080 dot Com will bring up this article. Since I said 0:24:16.119 --> 0:24:20.720