Another thing is healing! Hope for him lurked in the heart of every leper. And strangely, for some it was so immeasurably great that not even the most hopeless reality could shake it. Each patient, entering the land of the sick courtyard, considered himself a temporary guest. The time will come, and he will leave, he will definitely leave healthy, purified, no one will dare to keep him here.
Georgy SHILIN. "Lepers."
Humanity - praise to antibiotics! - learned to cope with leprosy - the horror of the Middle Ages.
Many famous people suffered from leprosy: King Louis XI of France, Duke of Bavaria Henry XIV, famous French artist Paul Gauguin and others.
Are there lepers in Latvia?
Officially there are none. However, any tourist can easily bring a disease from some exotic country!
...I think many will be surprised if they learn that the last leper colony in Latvia was closed quite recently - only in 2007. The establishment in the town of Talsi was the last not only in our republic, but also in the Baltic states as a whole.
What is leprosy, or, in scientific terms, leprosy? This is an infectious disease caused by the microbacterium Mycobacterium leprae Mycobacterium lepromatosis. It affects the skin, nervous system, respiratory tract, hands, and feet. It can easily be caught in dangerous regions of the world. You won’t believe it, but to this day there are about 10 million sick people on the planet.
The causative agent of leprosy, or the so-called Hansen's bacillus, was discovered by the Norwegian physician Hansen in 1873 and became the first pathogenic microbe discovered by mankind. This bacterium is similar to the tuberculosis bacillus; it is not very resistant to the external environment, heat treatment and disinfection.
Leprosy, also known as leprosy, Hansen's disease, is a chronic infectious granulomatosis (formation of inflamed nodules) with primary damage to the skin and nervous system.
The horrific ulcers, falling off joints and other disgusting signs of “rotting alive” in leprosy are not manifestations of the disease itself, but a consequence of impaired blood supply and secondary bacterial infections.
Middle Ages: Curse of Heaven
This strange disease is mentioned even in the Old Testament. When a person had a tumor, lichen, or a white spot on the skin resembling a leprous sore, he was to be brought to the high priest Aaron or one of his sons... The high priest examined the wound. If the hair on it turned white and it went deeper under the skin of the body, it was a leprous ulcer; the priest performing the examination had to declare the person's body unclean. Sometimes the patient was locked up for seven days to make sure that the ulcer did not change or spread across the skin...
Essentially, for many centuries the fight against leprosy was a story of moral and physical destruction of the sick. Lepers were buried alive in the ground, burned at the stake, thrown into gorges, and drowned in rivers. Thus, in 1321, in the French province of Languedoc, 600 people were burned in one day, half of whom had leprosy. The rest were only suspected of this terrible disease.
Leprosy: 103 countries
In 1985, there were more than 5.2 million patients worldwide. By the second decade of the 20th century, the number of patients, thanks to new drugs, had dropped by more than 90 percent.
In 2012, WHO counted 181,941 lepers. According to official data, from 103 countries in five WHO regions, the global reported prevalence of leprosy was 180,618 cases in 2013, with 215,656 new cases reported in the same year.
The main centers of distribution: India, Brazil, Burma and some African countries. There are still a lot of lepers there. A characteristic sign is the absence of a nose and other parts of the body. It turns out that almost any Latvian tourist can become infected with Hansen's disease.
In the Middle Ages, leprosy was considered a mark of the devil. In Europe, it spread greatly during the Crusaders' campaigns. Soon after returning home from the Middle East and the Holy Land, many of them fell ill.
They were forcibly placed in leper colonies, which were opened everywhere. Unhappy people were sent there forever(!), crossed off from the list of the living. To family members they were dead. There was even a special tribunal that condemned a person to death. On the other hand, only thanks to such extremely stringent measures was it possible to stop the spread of the terrible disease, which was described in the Bible. It is not for nothing that leprosy is sometimes called the disease of St. Lazarus; this is one of the biblical characters who was healed by Jesus Christ. And leprosy was stopped with the help of drugs only in the middle of the last century - after the invention of powerful antibiotics.
In Latvia, the last person with leprosy was registered in 1981. The girl's grandfather was ill. It turns out that he passed on the infection to her “by inheritance.” And every year 200 thousand new cases appear in the world.
The “lion” face of Viktor Yushchenko
Some doctors believe that the former leader of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, was among those who had leprosy. In their opinion, he had a lepromatous form of leprosy. Its characteristic feature is a “lion face”, covered with rashes, spots and nodules that disfigure the skin.
However, the true picture is still unclear, the medical card of the ex-president of Ukraine is still classified, and all this is being circulated in the press at the level of rumors and speculation...
The leper colony is locked!
At the end of the 19th century, on the territory of present-day Latvia, which was part of the Russian Empire, there were several leper colonies: in Cesis, Bauska, Tukums, Arlava. In Riga, an institution for lepers existed until 1937; it was located where the Latvian Infectious Diseases Center is now located.
And then all the patients were transported to Talsi. Several years ago, former leper colony workers turned to the P. Stradiņš Museum of the History of Medicine in Riga with a request to adopt rare items that were used in their medical institution. The pathologist's working sectional instruments and even the table itself on which autopsies of lepers were performed were transported to the capital: surgeons studied in detail the bodies disfigured by the disease. When the exhibition of donated items opened in 2013, visitors under 14 and overly emotional people were not recommended to attend.
Selective leprosy
The paradox is that leprosy is very selective. As told Chief Specialist Museum of the History of Medicine Martins VESPERIS, among the members of one family there can only be one patient. This has long surprised doctors. By the way, former employees of the Talsi leper colony also took part in the opening of the exhibition. Despite the fact that they had direct contact with the sick, they themselves remained completely healthy. One woman was 87 years old and worked as a nurse from 1949 until the early 90s. And the patients themselves lived to be 90 years or more. Leprosy can either fade or suddenly become active in the human body.
People were sick for 40 years or more. Moreover, leprosy often chooses representatives of one profession. For example, in Estonia there were many lepers among the sailors. Relatives also fell ill with leprosy. But for some reason those around me remained healthy. If treatment is delayed, the disease leads to permanent changes and disability. The exhibition at the Riga Museum featured 137 dummies. They show how leprosy manifests itself. First it destroys the nervous system. Various organs gradually die. Well, the very first signs of the disease are specific pimples on the skin. If someone came from India or other dangerous regions and suddenly began to experience some changes in their skin, they should immediately contact the Latvian Infectology Center.
Visitors to a truly shocking exhibition could see among the exhibits terrible wax casts of various body parts of those residents of Latvia who fell ill with leprosy. By the way, the very first exhibits were created back in the mid-20s of the last century. They began to be made for training medical students on the initiative of Professor Peteris Snikers (1875-1944) and thanks to the head physician of the Riga leper colony, Jēkabs Širons (1870-1945).
The production of intravital dummies, which were removed from the patients themselves, continued for a long time even after the Second World War.
Transfer method
Although leprosy is not a highly infectious disease, it is spread through droplets from the nose and mouth and frequent contact with untreated infected people.
What about today?
“There are no lepers in Latvia!” - this is what the head of the Infectology Center Baiba ROSENTHALE thinks. True, those who suffered this terrible disease are still alive. They were kept in the Talsi leper colony. However, we are talking about literally several people. But today they are no longer contagious at all, since the disease was suppressed with the help of powerful drugs. They have only residual effects - alas, at some point self-amputation of some organs occurred. Say, the tip of the nose, fingers or toes...
“In general, leprosy is no longer relevant for civilized countries,” the professor believes. Although in Southeast Asia and other dangerous regions of the planet there are still really a lot of lepers. The level of disease there is quite high. Europe managed to cope with a terrible infection with the help of antibiotics, which, as we noted above, appeared relatively recently - only in the middle of the last century. It is for this reason that the need for inpatient treatment has disappeared.
As a result, leper colonies began to be closed everywhere. For example, there was a well-known clinic on the Greek island of Spinalonga. This leper settlement, surrounded by the sea, is located opposite the villages of Plaka and Elounda in eastern Crete. The patients ran their own households.
In Latvia, patients of the Talsi leper colony also worked on the land. In addition, they were fond of various folk arts. Doctors came to them from the district hospital. When the leper hospital was closed, the premises were transferred to the Red Cross, after which they opened a home for the elderly who were left without family and friends; The places around are very picturesque. And the surrounding residents try to remember the sad past of the establishment as rarely as possible.
The development of a vaccine against leprosy, unfortunately, has not yet been completed, but one would like to hope that modern drugs will be enough for the final victory over “lazy death” - the terrible legacy of the Middle Ages.
Everything incomprehensible is under a microscope!
...Theoretically, a new carrier of leprosy could appear in Latvia at any moment. It is enough to pick it up in some exotic country. Leprosy is a contact infectious disease, that is, it is not transmitted simply through the air, like the flu. And here, of course, it is very important to make a diagnosis in time so as not to start the disease. According to Baiba Rosentale, today there is a modern laboratory in Riga, whose specialists can easily recognize leprosy. Otherwise, it will begin to spread throughout the body, gradually affecting the skin, nervous system, respiratory tract, hands, feet...
Although, as I was assured, there is no need to be so afraid of leprosy. Not all people who come face to face with a microbacterium catch it. Dangerous sticks can penetrate the skin only of those with weakened immune systems. And modern people it is usually quite high, so leprosy is practically harmless for most travelers. However, there is no need to relax. If suspicious pimples appear on your face or other parts of the body after exotic trips, you should consult a doctor. At least for my own peace of mind.
Dmitry MART.
To the point
Leprosy in Ireland
According to the BBC, Ireland has recorded its first case of leprosy in decades. The patient is Brazilian, but has been living in Ireland for several years. It turned out that he became infected 10 years ago in Brazil. There had been no previous cases of leprosy in the country, but it was common in medieval Dublin.
Jewish spiritual teachers say: "Leprosy (tsaraat) — illness of the soul. Leprosy is caused by an evil tongue, gossip, the desire to harm people... The only cure for leprosy at all times was repentance, and the treatment was very long. Retribution always came quickly - in the form of isolation from society and shame, because everyone who saw a leper understood that this man had sinned.” (http://www.evrey.com/sitep/nedglav/ar...)
The topic brought to the attention of the reader is not new. But it has no statute of limitations, so it can and should be repeated, repeated, repeated... so that millions of people understand what kind of world we live in.
Gundarov: leprosy has spread to the political elite...
The name of Doctor of Medical Sciences Professor Gundarov thundered eight years ago, when the head of the laboratory of the State Research Center for Preventive Medicine of the Russian Ministry of Health diagnosed President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko.
He explained: the incomprehensible “crust” of pockmarks and acne that disfigured the politician’s face is the medieval disease of leprosy. Leprosy, which without treatment causes amputation of arms and legs, and the face changes beyond recognition. Lepers were hung with bells around their necks and driven out of the cities, later locked up for life in leprosariums...
The scandal was forgotten until February of this year, when Yulia Tymoshenko was taken to the revolutionary Maidan. Bright beauty disappeared: a woman was sitting in a wheelchair with a bloated face, on which familiar features were almost invisible...
The audience shuddered, and a joke began to circulate on the Internet: “Yulia Tymoshenko was played on the Maidan by actor Sergei Bezrukov”, - and then Doctor Gundarov came onto the stage again. And said: "I warned you".
Igor Alekseevich, are you sure of the diagnosis? How can you say such things?
I'm one hundred percent sure. With Yushchenko - by one hundred, and with Tymoshenko - by ninety-eight: one can still assume some problems with the blood there... I will say this. I'm a professor twice, it doesn't happen that often. If after publication my colleagues respond and prove that I am wrong, I will tear up both my diplomas in front of everyone.
From the medical history: “On the night of September 5-6, 2004, presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko has dinner at the dacha of his friend, the deputy chairman of the SBU. In the morning, the politician begins to complain of severe headaches, he vomits, neurologists are invited to the patient. On September 7, Yushchenko’s eyes swell. On September 8, journalists arrive: they note the candidate’s unnaturally pink complexion and unclear diction; Yushchenko himself complains about severe pain in the back, on the 9th, facial paralysis is added to this. The patient is urgently sent to Vienna, to a private clinic, where doctors discover total damage to the gastrointestinal tract: multiple ulcers, acute pancreatitis, gastritis, colitis... The skin begins to change, but the skin is not the main thing: Yushchenko has severe back pain. The nature of the pain is unclear, the patient can no longer walk or get out of bed. They numb the pain with opium substances, as after a major operation, thanks to this the politician is conscious."
Later, cysts and ulcers will cover the entire body, they will fester and hurt, the poor politician will have to change three or four shirts a day so that his jacket does not get wet...
One can only admire the courage of Viktor Yushchenko, who in such a state (with a catheter in his back, on drugs) is participating in the election race. And one can only be amazed at the short-sightedness of the Ukrainians, who they elect a rotting man alive president.
I am familiar with leprosy theoretically and practically: I conducted examinations of patients at the Terek leper colony for my candidate’s dissertation “Electrocardiographic changes in patients with long-term leprosy,” sometimes I had difficulty figuring out how to take a cardiogram if an arm or leg was missing... I drove until my wife knocked fist on the table: “I don’t want to get leprosy in twenty years!”- This disease has a long incubation period...
I immediately guessed what Yushchenko was ill with. Leprosy is a neuroinfection: it lives in the nerve trunks. The affected nerves thicken, and where they pass through the bone canals, the openings become narrow for them, the compression causes severe pain: such that the patient thinks about suicide. Moreover, the leg may hurt, or the arm may hurt, depending on which nerve is damaged. Gastritis, pancreatitis, various paralysis and loss of sensitivity due to leprosy are also classic manifestations, not to mention leprosy on the skin...
All the doctors who treated Yushchenko noted the atypical course of the disease and could not come up with a common reason for such different symptoms. But once you think about leprosy, everything becomes typical. Just like in the textbook.
From the medical history: "Leprosy is caused by Mycobacterium Hansen and is transmitted by conversation. Hundreds of thousands of bacteria swarm around the patient and affect those who come closer than one and a half meters. A person can become infected, but not get sick. Or he can get sick, but after twenty to thirty years, when the fatal meeting will already be erased from memory. All this time, a healthy carrier and a leprosy patient during the incubation period will be spreaders of the infection."
Leprosy has many faces: a person will be treated for five years for a hernia in the spine and not realize that it is leprosy. Or complain about a sore stomach, swallow intestines and porridge - and this will be leprosy again. Leprosy is a great imitator, its symptoms are those of different diseases. For example, the author of this note has a numb hand, and this could be leprosy. Leprosy is invisible: it is not detected in the blood and in half the cases it is not found in the affected tissues. That is, a third of the patients in leper colonies never had leprosy in the tests. Until recently, it seemed that the disease had been defeated: now only six hundred people are kept in leper colonies in Russia. Scientists debate whether leprosy is curable: the disease can be easily treated with drugs, but relapse can occur even after decades. Leprosy doesn't kill: it just makes life miserable.
Igor Alekseevich, actually Yushchenko was diagnosed with dioxin poisoning.
It's not even worth talking about. This is a well-crafted campaign narrative to give the candidate the aura of a martyr. I have a photograph where Viktor Yushchenko, with his face slanted to the right, says from the rostrum of the Rada: “You know who this murderer is. The killer is power! - and from the photo, paralysis of the left facial nerve is clearly diagnosed, which is characteristic of leprosy...
But in order. When information about the poisoning was spread, the Viennese clinic where Yushchenko was treated issued a denial. Doctors said that the poisoning version is not true! Later they changed their minds, but the head physician of the clinic did not. He was fired for refusing to sign a report on Yushchenko’s poisoning, sued the clinic over this issue and was reinstated.
Further: dioxin appeared in the tests only three months after the onset of the disease; before that, the blood tests were clear. It is impossible to establish where it came from, who added the poison and whose blood samples they were, since Yushchenko categorically refused to do tests at home in the presence of independent experts, even as part of a criminal case. For years he did not appear for interrogations, although he was a victim!
The concentration of dioxin in Yushchenko’s blood, even if you believe those controversial analyses, was only three or four Russian standards: in infants in Chelyabinsk it is higher... Five or six parliamentary and medical commissions in Ukraine came to the conclusion: there is no evidence of poisoning, all this unfounded.
But you are also accused of lacking facts. You make a diagnosis on TV, and this is not scientific and unethical.
I make a diagnosis based on video and photography, as well as medical documents. Ethical or unethical, but due to political publicity, Yushchenko’s medical record, his tests and examinations ended up on the Internet. I don’t need to examine the patient, excellent professionals did it for me!
You cannot be sure of the authenticity of the documents...
I know deputies of the Verkhovna Rada who checked everything thoroughly. I can be confident in the testimony of doctors that they gave in court, I can be confident in the published reports of commissions... Besides, sometimes just photographs are enough!
In medicine, there is the concept of “stigma”: this is a sign that occurs only with a given disease. Only with leprosy does the face change beyond recognition. It inflates, the brow ridges increase, the nasolabial folds cut more sharply, the nose thickens... In medicine, this is called the “lion mask” - the mask of leprosy patients, which even erases racial differences. Compare the photograph of Yushchenko and the portrait of the patient from the textbook: they are almost identical. Only leprosy affects the earlobes: they enlarge, resembling a plum. Why are there examinations here? Everything is completely clear. I appeal to all doctors: well, colleagues, admit the obvious!
Only leprosy deforms the ear cartilage. Normally, the pattern of the auricle is specific, like fingerprints, hence a lot of assumptions about Yushchenko’s double. People compare and write: this is not him!
Only leprosy affects the branch of the facial nerve responsible for the movement of the upper eyelid. The whole nerve - please, but one branch - only trauma and leprosy. I have a photograph: Yushchenko’s left eye is like a thorn. This is because the eyeball rolled back when blinking, but can’t go back - the nerve doesn’t work...
In the case of Yushchenko, I would teach students what tubercular leprosy is. He even has orange peel on his face, even rashes around his nose in the shape of butterfly wings...
If everything is so obvious, why doesn't anyone support you? Yushchenko's attending doctors sharply refuted this version.
They sharply refused to discuss it. Yushchenko's attending physician, cosmetic surgeon Olga Bogomolets, said that leprosy lasts for decades, but Yushchenko allegedly developed the disease in a few days. She just didn’t read his outpatient card, but I did. Viktor Yushchenko had been ill for ten years by 2004!
Gastritis, damage to the entire digestive system, dermatitis, the nature of which doctors could not determine, erysipelas, short-term paralysis. Viktor Yushchenko was the most frequently ill employee of the Ukrainian government! In 2002 - sixty-five visits to the doctor, seven per month! And this is not some hard worker who doesn’t have enough money for proper nutrition. It's the Prime Minister!
Yushchenko had such back pain that he was unable to attend the parliamentary meeting where the issue of his resignation was discussed: he underwent surgery at the Institute of Neurosurgery, where the nerve was freed from bone compression.
I'll tell you more. Thanks to my diagnosis, Yushchenko began to be treated.
Any evidence?
The director of one of our skin and veterinary institutes received a call from Ukraine and was asked to come and consult Yushchenko. He refused, then he was asked directly: “Could this be leprosy?” - “Yes, it could be leprosy”, - and this conversation took place just after my speeches.
Another indirect proof: it is known that from the very beginning Yulia Tymoshenko told her ally: “Do plastic surgery, remove this Pokemon mask”. Doctors in Switzerland tried to operate - and it was unsuccessful: the tissues do not heal, they are spreading because they are stuffed with mycobacteria, and then I read that Yushchenko underwent several dozen operations, and I see scars in the photographs instead of lumps, and this is only possible thanks to powerful anti-leprosy therapy.. .
I'm surprised at something else. For ten years I have been knocking on all doors: I was at the FSB, at a reception with leading scientists, wrote open letters to Yushchenko, met with the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Moroz. No reaction! There has never been a serious consultation and not even discussed the problem! But in epidemiology there are clear rules for what to do when a patient with leprosy is detected. And most importantly among them: It is necessary to register everyone who communicated with a leper at the dispensary...
That's it. And that’s why all the colleagues I turn to say: "Don't meddle". I gave materials to many of our healthcare leaders: “No, I didn’t read, I don’t see!”- because if you read it, this is a 100% diagnosis, then you need to take action!
But we are talking about public health. Young guys who have been in contact with those affected by tubercular leprosy are not taken into the army! The risk of infection is small, only three percent, but it's Russian roulette... And, in the end, there are already victims. The victim...
From the medical history: “Yulia Tymoshenko, who repeatedly hugged and kissed Viktor Yushchenko on the Maidan in 2004, was arrested in August 2011.
And almost immediately she announced that she was sick: bruises the size of her palm appeared all over her body. Yulia Vladimirovna is famous as a woman with peculiar concepts of morality, so no one believed in her illness (later the Ukrainian Iron Lady confirmed her bad temper, saying that she was beaten by guards). Bruises and hematomas were recorded by photography: they appeared and disappeared over time."
At the same time, Tymoshenko began to complain of back pain: the prisoner was transferred to a ward and filmed with a hidden camera, although doctors invited from abroad confirmed: Yulia was not a malingerer. After a couple of months, the body of the non-simulator was covered with a rash.
Igor Alekseevich, in your first interviews about Yushchenko many years ago you said: “It would be a pity if the beautiful features of Yulia Tymoshenko, the president’s closest ally, were distorted by a terrible disease...”
How I scribbled! But in fact, the seven years that have passed from “dioxin poisoning” is the standard incubation period for leprosy (lasts from five to thirty years. - Ed.). Arrest is extremely stressful. For Yushchenko, everything also came out due to stress, during the elections... I humanly empathized with Yulia. The woman screamed: "I'm sick, save me", - but the authorities didn’t move much. She was examined in Kharkov by doctors known to me, I asked: you will separate the personality of the politician and the symptoms. There is a rash, check it out!
Then German doctors from the Charite clinic began visiting Yulia and found that she had a Schmorl’s hernia, which eighty percent of older people have, as well as systemic damage to the nerve trunks. Most often this happens with three diseases: lues (syphilis), lupus (lupus erythematosus), leprosy...
They led her into court by the arms, and there you could see how her face was swollen. It's already different. Then they said: prison doesn’t look good on anyone. But Tymoshenko was not in prison, but in a first-class hospital, in a separate room, with good nutrition and the best Western doctors...
Now Yulia Vladimirovna looks almost the same as before. She was photographed in a store in Germany: walking with her daughter, light, in a white dress...
This means that the exacerbation has passed and remission has occurred, or the doctors have started anti-leprosy treatment. Leprosy is easily controlled modern drugs. It used to be that in leper colonies everyone was fingerless and legless - but now the problem is to identify the disease. Just think: Yushchenko and Tymoshenko have been collapsing for years in front of their colleagues! European doctors forgot the leprosy clinic and mistakenly attributed this infection to completely defeated...
Now let's talk about ethics. We have the right to discuss the possible infection of a particular person with a dangerous infectious disease or not. Who has more rights: a person to his personal privacy - or society to the safety of people's lives?
Did US congressmen have the right to know that a Ukrainian was speaking before them, whose entire body under his suit was covered with oozing sores, presumably leprosy? Yushchenko's attending physician, Bogomolets, writes about this with feminine enthusiasm: they say, if only members of Congress knew how painful it is for the man who stands in front of them at the pulpit. But congressmen who constantly measure sugar - did they really sign up for such a risk? What about their wives and children?
Well, okay, perhaps the US knows the truth: Yushchenko’s presence of American advisers has never been hidden. What about ordinary Ukrainians? There was no president who kissed the people as much as Viktor Yushchenko!
Here we can recall the atypical behavior of patients with diseases rejected by society, for example, syphilis and cancer. “Why am I the only one suffering? Why am I being punished like this?” - and they walk and infect in order to share the pain. This psyche is breaking...
In July, Yulia Tymoshenko donated blood for ATO fighters: this is terrible... A leprous leadership and a leprous country... Or maybe leprosy also affects the brain? And this explains the current explosion of Russophobia in Ukraine?
This is a stretch: the effects of the bacterium on the central nervous system have not been described. The point is different. Symptoms characteristic of leprosy began to appear in politicians in other countries. Unexplained bruises and bruises, changes in facial features, back pain, deformation of the ears...
One prominent oppositionist completely disappeared from the screen two years ago, I began to find out: it turns out that he had left-sided paralysis of the facial nerve, like Yushchenko, he was treated unsuccessfully twice, recovered a year later, but traces remained. Has he ever met the former president of Ukraine?
No, I haven't.
Who did you meet? With Boris Nemtsov, who visited the Maidan in 2004.
Simple logic says that both of them should be tested for leprosy. Here it is important not to go too far, but also not to miss the danger.
Or Hillary Clinton. Obama fired her as US Secretary of State a couple of days after suddenly suffering from dehydration in her stomach and intestines. Dehydration is just uncontrollable diarrhea and vomiting, it is treated with an IV in any rural hospital, and, of course, simple poisoning could not be the reason for the resignation of the second person in the United States. So they explained to Hillary that this was a lifelong illness...
Leprosy has spread to the elite. Nature decided to punish the political elite. It's a slow epidemic.
Have you informed the suspected patients, those you suspect?
Necessarily. I took the oath of a Soviet doctor and consider it my duty to warn of danger.
But people still think that dysentery, hemorrhoids or leprosy cannot happen to a high-ranking official. As a result, here and throughout the world there is no mechanism for diagnosing senior political figures. Remember Yeltsin with his coronary disease brain: this is not a harmless condition. It is enough to pat such patients on the shoulder, laugh at their joke - and in return you will receive anything you want, including the disarmament of the army...
Therefore, today the evidence-based opinion of the expert community is extremely important. If it publicly confirms: yes, Yushchenko has leprosy, then all the politicians who met the patient will run to get checked themselves.
And this is our salvation for now.
FIGURE: According to WHO, eight hundred thousand new cases of leprosy are detected annually in the world. There are about fourteen million old treated patients who can relapse on earth.
APPLICATION:
“Leprosy is a disease of the soul. Leprosy is caused by an evil tongue, gossip, and the desire to harm people...”
Article announcement:
"God's chosen or God's damned?!"
Now you can only hear from different sides: "The Holy Land is Israel!" . Both Jewish priests in synagogues and Christian priests glorify Israel by reading prayers in the temples of Christ. But the ancestral home of the Jews was never a holy land! On the contrary, it was the land of people cursed by God, whom the healer and prophet Moses once brought out of Ancient Egypt.
A careful study of the Torah and the Bible leads to an unequivocal conclusion: the people who came out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses suffered from terrible skin diseases. One of them was leprosy. Leprosy (leprosy) in ancient times was considered a disease sent as punishment by God. This is what they called her: "God's curse" . This is exactly what the Jews suffered from when they were led out of Ancient Egypt by Moses.
Nowadays it is customary to tell a fairy tale about how Moses led his people through the desert for 40 years. And for what purpose did he lead those unfortunates through the desert - a mystery shrouded in darkness! Religious figures of Judaism and Christianity, and Islam too, do not want to admit that at the source of all three Abrahamic religions is the feat and hard work of the prophets to save leper villains: treating their souls, minds and removing God’s curse from them!
Today it is customary to remain silent about why Moses entrusted the first “law of God”—the Ten Commandments—to someone else, namely the Jews: “Thou shalt not kill!”, “Thou shalt not steal!”, “Thou shalt not bear false witness!” and so on. But, if you think about it, the mind should tell any person the answer to this question.
That's why Moses brought these to the Jews ten Commandments, carved in stone, for centuries (!) that they originally lived robbery, theft, murder of people , and at the same time they also bore false witness against those whom they robbed, robbed or killed...
When Christ came to the sinful land of the Jews, he tried to continue the work of Moses in treating the mentally and physically sick. Jesus justified his coming to the Jews with these words:“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5:31-32).
The unimaginable fact that the ancestors of modern Jews were punished in ancient times with leprosy for their numerous crimes against God and humanity explains, for example, why modern Jews have such a heritage “rich” in genetic diseases. What kind of inheritance is this - says an article published on a Jewish website www.sem40.ru
“I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, punishing the children for the iniquity of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”(Deuteronomy 5:9).
“There were also many lepers in Israel under the prophet Elisha, and not one of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”(Luke 4:27).
Genetic diseases of Jews
Genetics
Many genetic diseases are specific ethnic groups or nationalities.
For example, 25 percent of Jews whose ancestors come from Eastern Europe are carriers of certain genetic diseases that can be passed on to their children. If one of the partners is a carrier of a genetic disease, then there is a 25 percent chance that the couple will have an affected child. There is also a 50 percent chance that the child will be a carrier of the defective gene, like the parents, and only a 25 percent chance that he will not inherit it at all.
Fortunately, very accurate methods have been developed to determine whether a fetus has inherited genetic diseases or not. This can be either amniocentesis, performed at 15-18 weeks of pregnancy, or hornal villus analysis, usually performed at 10-12 weeks of pregnancy.
Jews planning to become parents will find it very helpful to learn about genetic diseases that are common among Ashkenazi Jews. These diseases include:
Bloom's syndrome. Children suffering from this rare disease are born very small and rarely grow above 1.5 meters. They have red and very sensitive skin on their face; various pathological disorders; they are more susceptible to respiratory and ear infections and have a higher risk of certain types of cancer. About one in 100 Ashkenazi Jews are carriers.
Canavan syndrome. This disease usually appears in children between 2 and 4 months of age, and they begin to forget previously learned skills. Most children die before the age of 5. One in 40 Ashkenazi Jews is a carrier of this disease.
Cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis causes the body to produce thick mucus that accumulates mainly in the lungs and digestive tract, causing chronic lung infections and stunted growth. A carrier is every 25th Ashkenazi Jew.
Hereditary dysautonomia. This disease affects body temperature control, motor coordination, speech, blood pressure, stress reactions, swallowing, and the ability to produce tears and digestive juices. Found in every 30 Ashkenazi Jew.
Fanconi syndrome - type C. Fanconi syndrome is associated with short stature, bone marrow failure, and a predisposition to leukemia and other cancers. Some children may have hearing problems or mental retardation. A carrier is every 89th Ashkenazi Jew.
Gaucher syndrome - type 1. Every 1,000 Ashkenazi Jews suffer from this disease. Its symptoms usually appear in adulthood. Patients suffer from pain in bones and joints, are sensitive to fractures and other pathologies associated with the skeletal system. Susceptible to anemia, bruising and poor blood clotting. This disease can currently be effectively treated with enzyme replacement therapy. Every 12th Ashkenazi Jew is a carrier.
Mucolipidosis IV (ML IV). ML IV is one of the recently discovered genetic diseases of Jews. It is caused by the accumulation harmful substances all over the body. People with ML IV suffer from a variety of progressive motor and mental impairments that begin around 1 year of age. Early signs of the disease may include corneal clouding, strabismus, and retinal degeneration. IN this moment There are known patients with ML IV aged from 1 year to 30 years, but there is no data yet on the life expectancy of these patients. The percentage of people who carry it is also unknown.
Niemann-Pick disease - type A. Niemann-Pick disease is a neurodegenerative disease in which harmful amounts of fat cells accumulate in various parts of the body. Symptoms include loss of brain function and enlargement of the liver and spleen. Average duration The lifespan of children suffering from this disease is 2-3 years. Every 90th Ashkenazi Jew is a carrier.
Tay-Sachs disease (children's type). Tay-Sachs disease is the most famous genetic disease of Jews, affecting approximately one in 2.5 thousand newborns. Children with Tay-Sachs disease develop normally until 4-6 months, after which their central nervous system begins to degenerate due to lack of necessary hormone. Affected children lose all motor skills and become blind, deaf and mute. Death usually occurs by age 4 years. Late manifestations of Tay-Sachs disease are less common, when the disease progresses more slowly and the symptoms are less pronounced. A carrier is every 25th Ashkenazi Jew.
Ideally, all parents wishing to have a child should be tested to determine whether they are carriers of one of these diseases. In most cases, at least one parent will test negative, and their children will be born without these diseases. If the test results of both parents are positive, then they should consult a doctor to look for a solution to this problem.
Before making a difficult decision, it may be helpful to reach out to a rabbi. Many Orthodox communities insist on premarital testing to cancel the marriage of two carriers of genetic diseases.
Sephardi Jews, whose ancestors come from Spain, Portugal, North Africa and parts of the Mediterranean, also suffer from certain genetic diseases. These include: beta thalassemia, familial Mediterranean fever, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and glycogenosis type III.
Although these genetic diseases are usually not as severe as those afflicting Ashkenazi Jews, they can cause serious health problems and require treatment.
The beta thalassemia gene is found in every 30 people from the Mediterranean, while every 5-7 Jews from North Africa, Iraq, Armenia and Turkey carry the gene for hereditary Mediterranean fever. The glycogenosis type III gene occurs in one in 35 North African Jews and can only be inherited if both parents have it.
Unlike other Sephardic genetic diseases, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, the most common enzyme deficiency disease in humans that affects about 500 million people worldwide, is passed from mother to son. There is currently no test to determine the carrier.
Translation by G. Charushnikov for
Leprosy (leprosy) is one of the most terrible diseases. We strongly associate it with the Middle Ages. Then people avoided lepers whose flesh was rotten. The presence of these ghost people was accompanied by the ringing of a bell, they were placed in colonies where no one really treated them. The ancient disease is mentioned in the Bible. Hippocrates and the ancient Indians wrote about it.
In ancient times, disease was considered God's punishment. Only in 1873 was the causative agent of leprosy identified, and people learned to effectively fight leprosy. But most people know little about the disease, trusting vivid images from books and films rather than facts. This is what we will try to remind them of, making leprosy both more understandable and not so scary.
Leprosy still exists. Usually this disease is talked about in the context of the Middle Ages or the biblical plague. However, the disease also exists in the modern world. Experts believe that leprosy affects between two and three million people today. The exact number is difficult to ascertain as most leprosy patients live in poor and underdeveloped areas. There are believed to be about a million lepers in India alone, with the World Health Organization even reporting an increase in the number of diseases in some areas of the country. There are regions in India where leprosy was officially eradicated back in 2005, but some places have even seen a dramatic resurgence of the disease since then. Between 2010 and 2011, doctors recorded more than 125 thousand new cases of the disease. And do not think that the disease exists only in remote areas of backward India. In the southern United States, 213 new cases of leprosy were recorded in 2009, and in total there are about 6,500 leprosy patients across the country.
Bells for lepers. Many people know that the movement of lepers was accompanied by the ringing of bells that were placed on the unfortunate people. So people should have known that a sick person was approaching and moved out of his way. In fact, bells originally had a different purpose, the opposite. Until the 14th century, lepers relied on the kindness of strangers. Many patients lost their voice, and by ringing they attracted attention to themselves so that they would be given alms. These donations were often the only way for lepers to survive. And no one was afraid of this. Indeed, in the Middle Ages after the Crusades, many knights returned from the Holy Land with leprosy. This disease began to be considered righteous. In some places, lepers were even given a fixed portion of food from the market. True, over time, some cities banned the use of bells, because patients began to engage in natural extortion.
Lepers were initially isolated from people. Thanks to modern archaeological research, it has become clear that our ideas about medieval lepers are not entirely correct. Between 1000 and 1500, Europeans attributed a wide variety of skin diseases to leprosy. Excavations of hospitals in France and England showed that there were not only patients with leprosy (Hansen's disease), but also those suffering from tuberculosis and malnutrition. And although the hospitals themselves were located on the outskirts of medieval cities, the very fact of their existence can be noted. Therefore, patients were not persecuted and ostracized. Given the quality of the first leper colonies, we can assume that patients received fairly professional care, which could generally be offered at that time. Most of these buildings were well built, expanded and even renovated as needed. Such hospitals had not only general wards, but also chapels and cemeteries. There, patients were buried in carefully dug graves. Separate tombstones were installed on them, and there was religious iconography. It was only with the advent of plague epidemics that infectious patients began to be shunned, but this no longer helped.
Religion spread it, but the plague practically stopped it. In an attempt to trace the spread of leprosy, some strange details have emerged. A comparison of the pathologies of different strains showed that Europe was struck about a thousand years ago by the type of leprosy that was widespread in the Middle East. There are currently 11 types of leprosy, and researchers can trace where they originated and how the disease spread. This happened most violently during the Crusades. A quarter of Europe's population suffered from leprosy, fueled by the emergence of new diseases on the continent. Previously isolated populations had no immunity to them. Thus, religious wars contributed to the spread of leprosy, but the plague was able to stop it. When the Black Death devastated Europe, there was a sharp drop in leprosy rates. One theory says that humans have developed immunity to this disease (today up to 95% of the population has natural protection). According to another version, the plague first killed those who were most susceptible to leprosy. These people were already malnourished and had weakened immune systems.
Royal care. Do not think that lepers in the Middle Ages were doomed. Moreover, even monarchs looked after them. Thus, Queen Matilda of Scotland was known for her charitable acts; she especially emphasized that she extended her grace to her leper subjects. And the queen went so far in caring for them that she invited the sick into her private rooms, publicly touched their wounds, trying to dispel people’s fears. Matilda followed in the footsteps of her mother Margaret, who was canonized in 1250 for her charitable work. Together with her father, Malcolm, Matilda washed the feet of all those who suffered during Lent. She founded the Saint Gilles Hospital, which provided care specifically for lepers. The Queen allocated funds for other similar institutions. We are talking about a hospital in Chichester and a women's complex in Westminster. And the English king John also established laws to make life easier for lepers. He organized a very popular fair in Cambridge, which allowed lepers to earn additional income.
Leprosy is transmitted by armadillos. Most diseases exist within one species of living being. Others, like influenza and rabies, can pass from animals to humans and back. For a long time it was believed that leprosy was an exclusively human disease. However, in Lately It became known that the virus can also spread with the help of armadillos. Currently, every fifth such wild animal is a carrier of leprosy. In the southern United States, armadillos are hunted for their meat. By eating such food, you can actually become infected with leprosy. Symptoms of this are usually poorly diagnosed, since leprosy is a rare disease in the region. As a result, in some cases, things may reach an irreversible phase. But this fact also has its advantages. The virus cannot exist without a carrier - samples in laboratories die within a few days. Now, with the help of armadillos, researchers have the opportunity to study the disease not only on the basis of the human body. It is much more practical to use animals for experiments.
The flesh does not rot. Imagining a leper, we see how his body rots and pieces of flesh fall off. This image is generated by the appearance of actual symptoms, skin inflammations and wounds. However, these classic lesion patterns may be very faint, with little discoloration along the border line. Leprosy does not produce rotten flesh. The skin may become deformed into abnormal growths, spots, and large areas lose sensitivity. Such numbness, together with the affected nerves, deprives a person of the feeling of his body, which leads to a whole range of other problems. We rely on our senses to respond to pain, and we talk about it when there is discomfort. And people with leprosy may suffer from cuts and burns without even realizing that anything bad is happening. Injuries that in normal life we avoid through a preventative reaction can become serious here. And if timely, comprehensive treatment is not carried out, numbness can turn into paralysis. Leprosy matures slowly in the body; symptoms may take up to 10 years to appear after infection. This makes diagnosis difficult.
Biblical leprosy was not leprosy. One of the reasons for avoiding lepers in the later part of the Middle Ages was the “biblical” stigma attached to such people. The holy book contains a description of leprosy, but more gaze these lines will reveal that we are talking about something completely different from the Hansen disease that we know today. In the Bible, leprosy is called sara "at, it is described as a skin infection. But taking into account modern knowledge about the diseases and symptoms of leprosy, it can be anything from a rash to redness of the skin in swollen areas. The priests quickly diagnosed such a skin infection problems - leprosy, declaring its extreme contagiousness. This is refuted by modern medicine. Archaeological excavations from the places where biblical events took place did not reveal signs of leprosy known today, its classic manifestations - loss of sensitivity, deformation of the skin are not mentioned at all in biblical texts. Perhaps The Bible, importantly, describes leprosy as being caused by inanimate objects. Thus, mold on a person, his clothing or in his home was considered a sign of dirt and uncleanliness. The priest studied the place and declared that leprosy was the result God's wrath who punished the wicked. And in this case, a quarantine was declared in the house, this place was cleaned. If the mold could not be defeated, then the entire home was destroyed.
Preventive Burials. Leprosy spread not only to Europe, but also to Asia, as well as North and South America. People all over the world shared the Europeans' concerns about this terrible disease. This is precisely what can explain the strange burial methods. So in Japan, in the area of Nabe-Kaburi, people with leprosy were buried with pots on their heads. Archaeologists have found 105 such burials, including both men and women of the most different ages. The pots used were iron, earthenware or the simplest, from mortars. The earliest remains date from the 15th century, and the latest from the 19th century. In Japanese folklore, it is believed that a pot on the head can stop the spread of a disease that has killed a person. It has long been believed that there is a connection between folk legends and leprosy. Now, with the latest advances in science, it has indeed become known that many in Nabe Kaburi suffered from leprosy.
Leper knights. Lepers are believed to have had a bad reputation and were generally ostracized by the Christian population. But the Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem appeared precisely thanks to such a disease; it welcomed leper knights into its ranks. After the capture of Jerusalem at the end of the First Crusade in 1099, the invading European knights also took over the leper hospital. The first rector of the hospital became known as Blessed Gerard, and for several decades this hospital was funded by the Order of Malta. As already mentioned, the number of cases of leprosy increased significantly during the years of the Crusades. So many knights were hospitalized that the organization turned into a military one. And those sick with terrible leprosy united in the Order of St. Lazarus, which was financed by the Templars. The organization's envoys first went to France and then to England. The knights wanted to create branches of their order in Europe. And the original building in Jerusalem was expanded by combining with a convent. This gave the nuns protection and provided them with food. Gradually, the order included several chapels, a mill and several more hospitals. Saladin's invasion stopped the expansion of the organization, but it still remained under the protection of the papacy. When most of the original members died, new knights, already healthy, were recruited into the order. The Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem still exists. Its branches around the world strive to serve their faith with the same humility and devotion as the leper knights of centuries ago.
Leper saints. When leprosy came to Hawaii in the 19th century, sufferers were separated and moved to the island of Molokai. The Belgian emigrant Joseph de Veuster volunteered to take care of the isolated patients. More than 700 lepers were under his care. He was not the first to undertake such a task, but his colony turned out to be the largest. De Veuster became more than just an abbot. He took the name Father Damian, providing not only medical care, but also personal participation. The Belgian received a colony that was deprived of its means of subsistence. He managed to build a temple, farms, schools and cemeteries here, drawing attention to the government's problem. The priest improved life in the colony. After 12 years of living among lepers, Damian de Veuster himself received this diagnosis. He died in 1889 at the age of 49. In his final moments, Mother Marianne, another dedicated volunteer, was by his side. And she dedicated her life to serving the leper community in Hawaii. This Franciscan sister came to the islands in 1883 at the age of 45. She continued to serve a good cause until 1918, when she died at the age of 80. Father Damian was recognized as a saint by Pope Benedict XVI on October 11, 2009, and mother Marianne was canonized in October 2012. Thus, the church recognized the selfless devotion of these people to those unfortunates whom society rejected.
Little country
We drive for a long time along a high-altitude snow-covered road. For kilometers around there is not a single dwelling. The Terek leper colony is lost in the mountains of the Stavropol Territory. It was created one hundred and seven years ago by a local priest, among whose parishioners there were many lepers. Since then, it has grown into a whole village with its own foundations and traditions.
The leper colony is divided into three parts - residential buildings, hospital and administrative yards. It was about him that the famous book “Lepers” by Georgy Shilin was written, over which our grandmothers cried. Contrary to the decree prohibiting contact between healthy people and infected people, the author lived here at the beginning of the last century. Over the course of a century, little has changed: only new, modern buildings with gas and sewerage have grown, and two monuments to Lenin and two to the leper colony employees who did not return from the war appeared.
In total, there are 32 houses in the village - five-story buildings and hospital buildings. Here's yours kindergarten, which is attended by thirty children. There used to be a school, but then it was closed. Now the village children are taken to the nearest city - Georgievsk - to study. The teachers there don’t have leprophobia - they’re used to it. And children are not dangerous - now in the village no one under forty years old suffers from leprosy.
The village also has its own mental hospital, where six patients are kept. There are bars on the windows, the door is locked. Throughout the entire Soviet Union, there was only a psychiatric ward for “pranksters” here, and everyone was brought here. After the collapse of the CIS countries they demanded: “Give up our sick.” They gave it away, but specialists of a similar profile remained only here.
Today, about a thousand people live in the Terek leper colony. Of these, only one hundred and twenty suffer from leprosy. The rest are doctors, service personnel and simply people who have nowhere else to live. Some of them have spent their entire lives here and have no idea what is beyond the village border.
We're locals ourselves
The head doctor of the leper colony, Mikhail Gridasov, is at the same time the head of the administration, and in fact the “president” of this small country.
We have our own ambulance,” he says, “fire and gas service, all that remains is to install four towers, raise the flag, come up with an anthem - and the state is ready. (By the way, in “Lepers,” one of the patients also voiced the idea of creating a state for leprosy patients. After some hundred years, his idea practically came true.)
I ask the director how he got here, how he dared to lose a full life by isolating himself in a leper village.
“Yes, I’m from the locals, I was born and raised here,” Mikhail Ivanovich admits, smiling.
“You... Your parents... suffered from leprosy,” I finally decide to ask what I’m thinking about.
No,” the head physician is not offended by the question, “my parents settled here after the war, in 1947, my father was offered a job. To be honest, when I studied at the Kharkov Medical Institute, I carefully hid from my fellow students the fact that I grew up and lived on the territory of a leper colony. When I got married, I wanted to settle in Georgievsk, but they gave me housing here, so I stayed.
Together with patients - and after death
Together with Mikhail Ivanovich we go down to the hospital yard, located below the main part of the village. The air here is so clean that you start to feel dizzy out of habit. Accompanying us is 60-year-old Stepanida (the names of the patients have been changed for ethical reasons). You can't even tell from her that she is a leper. A blooming motor granny in galoshes on her bare feet and an open coat talks aloud about how nasty men have become and now there is no one to find for the soul, so we have to treat the sadness “bitter”. “But, honestly, I’m done,” she crosses herself, looking devotedly at the head physician.
Stepanida is a chronic alcoholic. Under all sorts of pretexts, they are already trying not to give her a pension in money, because she drinks everything down to the penny, and immediately exchanges it for food in a local store.
There is no clear boundary between the administrative and hospital yard, just as there is no line dividing the healthy and the sick here. We pass the building of a modern cinema. There is a cemetery left to the side. Over the course of one hundred and seven years, it grew greatly, and both the healthy and the sick were buried there.
Our doctors, even after death, are not separated from their patients,” the head physician jokes sadly. - Each of them needs to erect a monument for devoting their lives to these people and not being afraid of the black aura surrounding leprosy. Everyone with whom they communicate outside the village, hearing about the leper colony, immediately runs in a panic to wash their hands. Only representatives of medical dynasties work here: they succeeded their parents and grandparents. The head nurse, Maria Ivanovna, worked for 46 years. There are four generations of doctors in the family of nurse Galina: her grandmother, mother, Galina herself, and now her daughter has returned home after studying. All your life - with the same patients, but just try to endure all their complaints and whims! By the way, we have the highest life expectancy of leprosy patients in Russia.
Armless artist
The first buildings of the leper colony have long since fallen into disrepair and are now used for household needs. Six buildings of modern hospital buildings have risen nearby.
Hospital rooms are more like dorm rooms or regular apartments. People live here (or rather, survive) for years, so they arrange their life as best they can. Each room has a TV, carpets, portraits and icons on the walls, neat curtains, cabinets decorated with porcelain figurines.
Huge, beautifully painted oil paintings hang in the corridors everywhere. They were created by a local artist. He painted with brushes tied to the stumps of his hands. If not for his illness, he would have received an education worthy of his talent, perhaps he would have become famous artist. But now his works, completed shortly before his death, are known only in the leper colony, and the main connoisseurs of his genius are leprosy patients.
He is not the only one, everyone here is people who have failed in society. They did not have time to discover and apply their talents. Those who came here at an older age still have memories: one was once a virtuoso pilot, the other a journalist. Once a black man, a famous radio host, was being treated.
The stigma of being an outcast
The clinical symptoms of leprosy (translated from Spanish as leprosy) are described in the Bible. And yet, this ancient disease still remains one of the least studied. They say that leprosy is retribution for the sins of our ancestors. Scientists have established that the Genza bacillus, the spreader of the disease, is transmitted by airborne droplets during prolonged contact, but only if a person has a genetic predisposition to this disease. That is, if one of his relatives suffered from it.
The first signs are loss of tissue sensitivity; a person can be scalded with boiling water without feeling pain. Then skin manifestations, trophic ulcers, “lion face”, loss of limbs and blindness. The person seems to die off in parts, rotting alive.
Since the existence of mankind, lepers have been persecuted. Herodotus wrote about this in the fifth century BC. They were brutally killed or, provided with rattles and bells, they were escorted out of the camp alive to certain death.
Even in Soviet times, treatment in leper colonies was more like lifelong isolation of patients from society. And today, this disease is accompanied by an ancient, genetic fear that is difficult to overcome.
Previously, there were fourteen leper colonies in Russia, now there are only four - the rest were closed as unnecessary. Half of them are located in the Southern Federal District.
When you communicate with people with leprosy, you get a mixed feeling: curious, pitiful, and scared. Many of them could live outside the Terek leper colony, but the disease does not easily let them go “free”. They are feared; each has a negative experience of free life associated with bullying and curses. They are hiding here not from illness, but from ordinary people.
They are not prohibited from having children; no contraceptive measures (as is practiced in relation to mental patients) are applied to them. In the vast majority of cases, children are born healthy. Previously, they were forcibly separated from their parents and sent to a special orphanage.
My husband left for someone else
Most of the residents of the leprosarium create families among themselves; after being widowed, they get together again. Korean Boris once infected his wife, which did not prevent them from having nine children. Now he already has fourteen grandchildren. He buried his wife and now lives in a leper colony with another woman, a widow. They don’t consider it necessary to sign, they’re just whileing away their old age.
Margarita Mikhailovna is approaching 70 years old. Like most patients, she has no eyebrows or eyelashes, a “lion” mask is frozen on her face, and some of her fingers have turned into stumps.
Nevertheless, she knits herself warm clothes, wove cute rugs, and embroidered pillows in a way that a healthy person could not.
Her whole life is a complete tragedy. When whitish spots began to appear on the young girl’s body, she was sure that these were the consequences of terrible images of the war: in front of the girl’s eyes, the Nazis were killing people. For a long time they tried to treat her for malaria and syphilis. When they found out what kind of disease it was, a family tragedy also became known: at the age of two, Rita was taken into foster care from an orphanage. The girl's real mother turned out to be leprosy, she died immediately after the war.
Rita lived in a leper colony for ten years, was treated and discharged. But life outside the leprosarium did not work out: it was impossible to find a job, “kind-hearted” neighbors tried to burn down her apartment and doused it with disinfectant solution. And this also happened - the driver stopped the bus in which Margarita was traveling and declared: “That’s it, come, get off,” and threw her out without listening to complaints.
So Margarita Mikhailovna returned to live in the leper colony. Here I got married for the second time. But then my husband left for another woman, also a leprosy patient. It’s unpleasant to see them every day, but she doesn’t want to return to the city either: she is haunted by the constant fear that someone will see her legs, eaten up to the knees by leprosy, prosthetics instead of feet.
“Why do they hate and fear us?” she asks me rhetorically. “After all, our illness is not from drunkenness or drug addiction, not from fornication.”
Only deputies are not afraid of them - lepers are the same electorate. Local politicians are happy to come to campaign.
Old timers
Baba Marusya has been here the longest. She is 82 years old, of which 65 she has lived here - since 1939. Leprosy did not spare my grandmother: she went blind a long time ago, four decades ago, her nose was depressed, and monstrous scabs disfigured her entire body. But she does not lose heart: she takes care of herself, washes and cleans.
Alla, who lives in the next room, also recently buried her husband, but is holding up well. She wears her makeup neatly and uses face creams. The woman takes photographs with pleasure, coquettishly hiding her hands, on which leprosy has left its mark. It’s immediately obvious: this person is an optimist and no troubles in life can throw him into a stupor.
At the age of eight, Alla scalded her feet without feeling any pain. Her mother also suffered from leprosy, so the diagnosis was obvious. Alla ended up in a leper colony, within whose walls she grew up. She and her husband traveled outside of it for the first time already in adulthood - to visit their son who lived in orphanage in Labinsk.
The son grew up and from the only light in the window turned into a constant nightmare for his parents. If he came, it was to pick up his pension, and during his last visit he stole money. Alla's husband had a fight with his son and slapped him in the face for the first time, and after that he fell ill and soon died. The son didn’t even come to the funeral and disappeared altogether. Alla worries about the unlucky child (who, however, is already about forty years old), misses him, and at the same time cannot forgive him for theft, which caused the death of her husband.
She gave birth on her own account,” she sighs. - Nobody needs me now. - The friendly smile on her face suddenly gives way to a grimace of suffering, and tears flow from under her glasses with large optical lenses. - And we ourselves are not needed by anyone, we don’t live here, but we survive, we suffer ourselves and we torture others...
I am silent in shock and the nurse quickly takes me out of the room.
Are we at risk of leprosy?
Currently, leprosy has entered the category of exotic diseases - syphilis, AIDS, and tuberculosis pose a much greater danger. Nevertheless, today in the world, according to various sources, from 3 to 15 million people suffer from this disease.
Recently, residents of other countries entering our country for permanent residence have been tested for leprosy. And that’s right, the leper colony staff believe, it shouldn’t be allowed to get out of control: “If you let the leprosy go, the bells will appear again.”
According to the observations of leprologists, its spread is greatly influenced by socio-economic factors. After an incubation period - an average of 10 - 15 years - after wars and various disasters, a rise in the disease of leprosy was observed throughout the country. In such traditionally unfavorable regions as the Volga and Astrakhan regions, new cases of leprosy are reported annually. This year, after a long break, leprosy was registered in middle lane Russia.
In the Rostov region, the last time a terrible disease appeared was twelve years ago. However, no one can guarantee that tomorrow there will not be a new outbreak of leprosy caused by the economic turmoil of the early 90s of the last century. As even leprologists say: “Leprosy was born with humanity and will also die with it.”
24/12/2012
Moscow epidemiologist Igor Gundarov assures that leprosy is spreading among state leaders - and if you continue to “ignore the epidemic,” then in a few years it will get out of control.
WITH too close to Yushchenko
The epidemiologist believes that Viktor Yushchenko was sick with leprosy (the modern name for leprosy), and Yulia Tymoshenko became infected from him. The professor also found signs of the disease in Vladimir Putin. Online812 decided to find out whether there could be a grain of truth in this.
A version that seems incredible at first glance was voiced to the Russian media by doctor of medicine and Moscow professor Igor Gundarov. He is an epidemiologist by profession and has worked extensively in Asia and Africa, where leprosy is still widespread. According to Gundarov, Vladimir Putin became infected with leprosy from ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, from whom ex-Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko also became infected. Incubation period The average lifespan for this disease is 10 years. Therefore, it is not surprising that it began to manifest itself in those infected only recently.
Professor Gundarov has been talking about the fact that Yushchenko has leprosy for a long time. He considers the official version of dioxin poisoning to be ridiculous, deliberately fabricated by the US State Department for political purposes. According to Gundarov, Yushchenko, literally, has all the signs of lepromatous (the most severe and contagious) form of leprosy. Gundarov saw the same symptoms first in Yulia Timoshenko, and now in the President of Russia.
Firstly, these are bluish (sometimes, on the contrary, whitish) spots on the face and body. They appear in the initial stage of the disease.
Secondly, pastiness (pale swelling, puffiness) of the face and eyelids. (The Internet, which found these symptoms in Vladimir Putin, attributed them to the consequences of cosmetic surgery).
Thirdly, a symptom unique to leprosy is deformation of the cartilage of the auricle. Some people believe that Putin’s ears “before” and “after” look different.
Fourth, vague back pain. Yulia Tymoshenko also complained about them, and the fact that the Russian president suffered from “straining his back” was almost officially recognized.
In Yushchenko, according to Gundarov, the disease could not be recognized immediately, it was neglected, which is why it acquired such an ugly and noticeable form. The doctors of the other VIPs realized it in time, and the condition of the patients improved with anti-leprosy drugs. The professor believes that if we continue to “ignore the epidemic,” then in a few years leprosy will get out of control and a world panic will arise.
Monkey of all diseases
For comments, Online812 turned to the director of the only Federal State Budgetary Institution in Russia, the Research Institute for the Study of Leprosy, located in Astrakhan, Viktor Duiko.
According to him, the problem of leprosy is very relevant today, and before complete victory I still have a long way to go over the disease. Every year, up to half a million (!) new cases are registered worldwide. The worst countries for leprosy are India, China, Vietnam, Brazil, and Sri Lanka. In Western Europe, about five thousand patients are registered, in Russia - about 400 people.
We are the leading institution for leprosy; there are four leper colonies in Russia. The country is divided into four zones, and care is provided to patients on a zonal basis. We supervise the Astrakhan and Volgograd regions. The Astrakhan region accounts for about 50% of all registered patients, which is why the institute was organized here in 1948 on the basis of a leper colony. Further, the main centers are the North Caucasus, the Stavropol Territory - there is the Terek leprosarium there. Another one is located in the Krasnodar region, and near Moscow - the Zagorsk anti-leprosy clinic. She oversees the North-West, the central part of Russia, Siberia and Far East. We are seeing more and more cases of imported leprosy. It is distributed, for example, by students from Asia and the African continent. Abroad - migrants from countries where leprosy is an endemic disease, explains Viktor Duiko.
The doctor does not directly deny that Viktor Yushchenko could have contracted leprosy.
- At first glance, this is so. And they even called us and tried to give it a political spin. But, firstly, a self-respecting doctor should not make a diagnosis on TV. Secondly, despite the fact that we live in the 21st century, leprophobia still exists. They are afraid of this disease. And therefore, in order to give such a diagnosis to a person, it is necessary to carry out a very precise set of examinations. Only with all positive tests plus the clinical picture can a diagnosis of leprosy be made. Yushchenko’s disease is a little similar to it, but there are a lot of chronic diseases similar to it. skin diseases. However, leprosy can also imitate other diseases, which is why it is called “the monkey of all diseases.” This is her cunning, says the director of the leper colony.
According to him, the first symptoms of leprosy are the appearance of spots on the skin. If it is not recognized at this stage, the process will progress. Rashes, loss of sensitivity, and swelling will appear. Pain can appear anywhere, as leprosy bacilli develop and multiply in the cells of the nervous system. The main route of transmission of infection is airborne droplets.
To get sick, you need contact with someone who is sick and some kind of hole in the immune system. Leprosy is an immunodeficiency disease. But it is less dangerous and a hundred times less contagious than, for example, tuberculosis. It is much easier to become infected with tuberculosis than leprosy, the doctor assures.
The disease is classified as chronic infectious diseases. It can be cured, but only in the early stages.
The so-called tuberculoid type of leprosy - when only spots appear - is completely cured. And even the patient is treated on an outpatient basis; he does not need to be hospitalized. Lepromatous type and advanced cases are difficult to treat and patients must take maintenance doses of medications almost all their lives. They live in anti-leprosy institutions and are fully supported by the state. There good conditions, increased nutrition. Today, these institutions are not close to some kind of reservation, but to sanatoriums. There is no strict isolation of patients there,” says Viktor Duiko.
According to him, it is not yet possible to do without leper colonies in Russia.
Leprosy in St. Petersburg
On the last Sunday of January, the world celebrates World Leprosy Day. Beginning in 1948, it was officially called leprosy or Hansen's disease, recognizing that the word “leper” (available, by the way, in all languages) demeans the sick.
St. Petersburg doctors and epidemiologists admit that the danger of leprosy is underestimated.
- Well, of course we met her in St. Petersburg! The last case was registered about five years ago, and there were several more patients who had suffered it in the past and were observed with us,” says Olga Gaivoronskaya, head of the organizational and methodological department of the St. Petersburg City Clinical Internal Affairs Department.
According to her, the sick person was a St. Petersburg resident who often traveled to India for work. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with leprosy late. The disease has progressed far. The man was sent to the Astrakhan leper colony. An employee of the First Medical Institute suspected a rare diagnosis, and only then the patient began to be specifically examined for leprosy.
It took him a long time to get a diagnosis. We were thinking about something else. Many diseases in the initial stage may have the same clinical manifestations. They simply didn’t remember about leprosy, says Olga Gaivoronskaya. - We forget about this disease. And we lose our vigilance. Therefore, later forms are revealed, and not the initial ones. In principle, it is not difficult to diagnose it. We usually take scrapings from the nasal mucosa. If this is not enough, we do some research. The main thing is that there are specialists who can carry out the analysis. Today there are not many people left who remember what he looks like.
Olga Gaivoronskaya refused to comment on the Yushchenko-Tymoshenko-Putin illness.
“We don’t have any official information that Yushchenko had leprosy,” she said.
Epidemiologist of the Clinical Infectious Diseases Hospital named after. Botkin Oleg Parkov told Online812 that he “heard about Putin and Yushchenko,” but also refused to comment.
- I will leave this without comment, because I do not have accurate data.
Is such an infection even possible?
- In general, it is possible to become infected; leprosy is a fairly contagious disease. But “it was” or “it wasn’t”, I don’t know. Moreover, we are talking about the first persons. Come on, how can you comment on this!
According to Oleg Parkov, he has never encountered leprosy in his entire 30-year practice.
Numbers
Of the 228 thousand cases of leprosy registered in 2010, 126 thousand (about 55%) were recorded in India. This country ranks first in the number of cases. In 2011, the world started talking about the leprosy epidemic in India.
In Russia, the maximum number of cases - more than 2,500 people - was registered in the early 1960s. In 2007 there were about 600. In 2012 - about 400
The Inquisition saved me from a lazy death
Leprosy has many names: Hansen's disease, hansenosis, leprosy, Phoenician disease, mournful disease, Crimea, lazy death, St. Lazarus disease. This is the oldest of known to man infectious diseases.
Leprosy has been mentioned in Indian and Egyptian mythology since the 15th century BC. e. There are many stories about her in the Bible. It is believed that the first leper colony appeared in Europe in 570. By the 13th century there were already 19 thousand of them. Special rules were officially legitimized for the leper and his relatives. Once the disease was discovered, the person was taken to a religious tribunal, which "condemned him to death." That is, the patient was taken to church, there they put him in a coffin, they served a funeral service, they took him to the cemetery, they lowered him into the grave and they threw several shovels of earth on him with the words: “You are not alive, you are dead to all of us.” Then they pulled him out and took him to the leper colony. To everyone he was considered dead. It was allowed to leave the leper colony only in special clothing - a gray cloak with a hood and a bell around the neck.
Some researchers believe that the Inquisition helped curb leprosy in Europe. The main sign of a witch was considered to be the “devil's mark” - a special spot on the skin, insensitive to pain. This is one of the leading symptoms of leprosy.
The causative agent of leprosy was discovered in 1873 by the Norwegian scientist Gerhard Hansen. This is a small bacterium in the form of a straight or slightly curved rod.
Outside the human body, it can last up to seven days. The incubation period of the disease can reach 20 years. It starts asymptomatically. Over time, a person's eyebrows fall out and his face becomes disfigured. Sensitivity is lost due to damage to the nervous system. There are cases when patients' fingers and ears fell off, and their noses collapsed. And completely without pain.
Until 1941, St. Petersburg-Leningrad had its own leper colony - “Steep Streams”. In 1893 it was built in the Yamburg district. According to the official version, all patients were evacuated from there before the arrival of German troops. According to the unofficial story, they were shot, either by ours or by the Germans.
