Medicine: Leprosy Contained

The known cases of leprosy have increased sharply in recent years.

This was good, not bad, news to 250 delegates from 51 nations assembled in Rome. It meant that leprosy victims, so long shunted into isolation or secret shame by society's ancient fear of the disease, are now coming forward voluntarily to disclose their ailment and seek treatment. Doctors, missionaries, social workers and others who have labored for years against leprosy hoped they had finally dented the wall of rejection and abhorrence that has forced most leprosy victims to live a stigmatized life.

One by one, the delegates read their reports to an...

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