Yohei Sasakawa
Saturday, September 18, 2004

(This article originally appeared in the September 18-19 edition
of The International Herald Tribune.)

Conquering an ancient scourge

TOKYO For millennia, societies around the world have been
terrified by leprosy. But this fear has been nothing compared with
the life of sheer abjection that those affected by the disease
have had to face.

So those of us working toward the elimination of the disease were
thrilled when the 56th United Nations Sub Commission on the
Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, meeting in Geneva on
Aug. 9, adopted a resolution entitled, "Discrimination against
leprosy victims and their families." It seemed that the mountain
had finally started to move.

Most people have never even seen a person with leprosy and in most
countries the disease is no longer a public health issue. But even
where it has been eliminated, discrimination continues, and in
heinous forms.