# Are there any more leper colonies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 31, 2002, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-more-leper-colonies/145899 "2002-12-31T17:41:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rsvp9146](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rsvp9146](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsvp9146)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-more-leper-colonies/145899/1 "2002-12-31T17:41:13Z")
As i was watching th Simpsons last night, where Homer and Bart go to a leper colony, I wondered, are there any leper colonies in the world still. I would think we’d licked leprosy by now. ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-more-leper-colonies/145899/2 "2002-12-31T17:47:34Z")
There was a hospital in Carville, Louisiana, where my parents both worked, but it appears it was [closed down](http://www.cnn.com/US/9804/24/last.lepers/) in 1998 or 1999. According to the linked article, the disease is treatable now. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-more-leper-colonies/145899/3 "2002-12-31T17:50:27Z")
I imagine that less-developed areas still have problems with leprosy. ---
**Author:** ![Judith\_Prietht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-more-leper-colonies/145899/4 "2002-12-31T18:31:14Z")
There is a leper colony called [Kalaupapa](http://www.nps.gov/kala/home.htm) in Hawaii, on the island of Moloka’i. This, to the best of my knowledge, is the colony referenced on The Simpsons. There are currently less than 100 Hansen’s Disease patients living in Kalaupapa, which no longer receives new patients but is now home to those who’ve chosen to stay there. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-more-leper-colonies/145899/5 "2002-12-31T18:39:02Z")
Although inspired by a television series, this question has a factual answer that is not really related to entertainment (unless you find leprosy unduly entertaining). I think I’ll steal this thread for General Questions. bibliophage moderator GQ ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-more-leper-colonies/145899/6 "2002-12-31T19:04:18Z")
[This recent article](http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,854269,00.html) describes an example in Zimbabwe of what might still be called a “leper colony”. As it makes clear, even if the disease is now treatable, social issues remain a problem for those infected in the past and so one can still have communities made up of those who continue to be rejected by their society as “lepers”. ---
**Author:** ![rsvp9146](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rsvp9146](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsvp9146)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-more-leper-colonies/145899/7 "2002-12-31T19:34:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bibliophage \* > \*\*Although inspired by a television series, this question has a factual answer that is not really related to entertainment (unless you find leprosy unduly entertaining). I think I’ll steal this thread for General Questions. > > bibliophage > moderator GQ \*\* Actually i do find it unduly entertaining. My arms fell off earlier. That was a good laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-more-leper-colonies/145899/8 "2002-12-31T22:23:21Z")
Unduly entertained by leprosy…it certainly puts “laughed my ass off” in a whole new light… ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-more-leper-colonies/145899/9 "2002-12-31T22:28:52Z")
I don’t know about “unduly” but leprosy has always made my sides split. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-more-leper-colonies/145899/10 "2002-12-31T22:54:31Z")
Stop it, you’re killing me… ---
**Author:** ![DemonSpawn52](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f17d59/32.png) [@DemonSpawn52](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonSpawn52)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-more-leper-colonies/145899/11 "2002-12-31T23:07:24Z")
Did you ever wonder why lepers are so good at hockey? It’s cuz they always win the face offs. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-more-leper-colonies/145899/12 "2002-12-31T23:11:16Z")
Well, apparently Japan had a [Leprosy Prevention Law](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1350630.stm) until 1996 and isolated lepers against their will. Although leprosy is rare in the U.S. it’s still a big problem in countries such as India. Malnutrition and a suppressed immune system are contributing factors to the spread of the disease. Leprosy is caused by a bacterium named Mycobacterium leprae. It’s in the same genus as the tuberculosis bacterium but fortunately is a harder to contract. Leprosy doens’t appear to be airborne like TB is. Also, just because I find it fascinating, leprosy organisms can’t be cultured on agar-based media like most bacteria but it will grow in armadillos. ---
**Author:** ![andy\_fl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@andy\_fl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andy_fl)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-more-leper-colonies/145899/13 "2003-01-01T00:54:16Z")
Leprosy is still a major problem in parts of India : [Quote from WHO] ([http://w3.whosea.org/leprosy/burden.htm](http://w3.whosea.org/leprosy/burden.htm)) > [@](#): > > _The estimated prevalence as of 31 March 2000 with all available data is 704,000 and the estimated prevalence rate is 7.2 per 10,000. The lower limit of the estimate is around 585,000 cases and the upper limit is 824,000. It is estimated that around 1.2 million patients will have to be detected by the end of 2003, and the prevalence rate at the end of 2003 will be around 2 to 3 per 10,000._ There are a lot of organizations working to help the lepers. But more difficult than fighting the disease is the attitude people have to this disease. Many still falsely believe that leprosy is due to bad karma and that it is contagious. Notable work on the Lepers of Calcutta (Now Kolkata), India is that of Mother Teresa. Also, the book by Dominique Lapierre - City of Joy - gives a view of the social life of the lepers. I don’t find the humor in this. Its really sad. The only thing which comes close to “humor” is that leprosy makes people more horny than normal (as per what I read in the aforementioned book). ---
**Author:** ![Pablito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@Pablito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pablito)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-more-leper-colonies/145899/14 "2003-01-01T01:21:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by andy\_fl \* > Many still falsely believe that leprosy is due to bad karma and that it is contagious. > ] You’re saying that it is NOT contagious at all? I had always heard that it was one of the least contagious diseases but never that it is not at all contagious. I thought you had to live with an infected person(s) for years and years to have any chance of catching it. Here’s an interesting tidbit (that may or may not be true: one of you fact-checkers can confirm or deny it for the rest of us)–the only people who get leprosy in the U.S. these days are taxidermists, who may contract it if they injure themselves while taxidermying an infected armadillo, which, as someone else has noted above, is the only other mammal capable of carrying the disease and, in fact, carries it in high concentration (because of its very low basal body temperature). In addition, a fairly significant percentage of armadillos seem to carry this disease. ---
**Author:** ![andy\_fl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@andy\_fl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andy_fl)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-more-leper-colonies/145899/15 "2003-01-01T01:32:31Z")
Sorry Pablito. Bad Grammar there. I have heard that certain forms of leprocy are contagious while others are not. But, I am not an expert on this.