Carville's Cure: Leprosy, Stigma, And The Fight For Justice
Вставка
- Опубліковано 29 сер 2024
- Acclaimed broadcast journalist Pam Fessler writes about the largely forgotten history of leprosy in the United States - its impact on patients and their families, doctors, and, particularly, the swampy bayou town of Carville, Louisiana, where a “leprosarium” was established in 1894.
Carville evolved into a nexus for research and “treatment” that came at a huge personal cost to liberty as patients were stripped of their names, their rights, and their dignity. Understood today to be one of the least infectious diseases in the world, leprosy, now called Hansen’s disease, instilled a pandemic-sized level of fear and reaction from public health authorities well into the 20th century. Fessler discusses her chronicle of how America treated, contained, and demonized its sufferers before wiser heads prevailed.
This event is presented by American Ancestors/NEHGS together with the Boston Public Library and the State Library of Massachusetts as part of the American Stories, Inspiration Today author series.
GBH Forum Network ~ Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas
Like us: / gbhforumnetwork
Tweet with us: / gbhforumnetwork
See our complete archive here: forum-network.org
As a teenager, I remember driving past the Leprosy hospital in Carville, Louisiana
It gave me Chills.
I read “A Sanctuary of Outcasts” by Neil White. I found the Carville institution so interesting and I am so saddened by the injustice that was done to the patients there. I can’t wait to read this book.
Excellent presentation. Thank you so much. I am currently writing an article about leprosy in Norway in the 19th century when Norway had the highest incidence of the disease in all of Western Europe. Would like to have heard more about Dr. Hansen and the Norwegian model to stop contagion through isolation, which was the only way to stop the spread of leprosy before drugs were formulated. The Norwegian model is still in use worldwide in 2022. Regarding loss of rights: Billions of people all over the world were denied their human rights when government enforced isolation during COVID-19. Many families were unable to visit aged parents in care centers, or their beloved in the hospital. While leprosy may be mildly contagious, it is a disfiguring disease with devastating physical, social, and emotional consequences. While COVID is highly contagious, for the vast majority of people the symptoms are mild and not life threatening. In either case, governments made the decision to force people into isolation. Leprosariums were used not only to protect the public from the leper but also to protect the leper from the public. Leper is a legitimate word based on the name of the bacteria that causes it.
Thank you for telling this story. 1/2 way thru the book now. These people were horrendously rejected by their families etc. I’m glad the CURE has been found.
Thanks again!
There was a colony in northern New Brunswick? Canada
The home provided a place for people who had no place. We did not have the knowledge of the disease we do today.
Home? They were denied the right to vote! Like prisoners who had actually committed crimes. They were denied the right to get married! It wasn't a home, it was a prison with a ten foot fence topped by barbed wire and 24 hour guards. "Home"...pffft. It was a prison-hospital.