from the Deccan Chronicle
Chennai Monday 16 May 2005

By Our Correspondent

Chennai, May 15: "I was 12 yers old when I was affected by
leprosy," says Dr P.K. Gopal, a member of Idea, an organisation
that works towards eliminating the stigma associated with leprosy.

Speaking on the occasion of the regional conference on leprosy
held in the city on Sunday, he said, "There was very little
information about the disease in the fifties and it took about
seven years for it to be diagnosed. It started with a small patch
on my skin, and then I lost sensation in that part of the skin.

"After it affected my sensory organs, I had a little deformity in
my hand too. There were times when people avoided me because of
this. I took treatment for about 25 years The disease did not
deter my day-to-day activities and I led a normal life. Now,
nobody even remembers that I was afflicted by the disease."

He went on to do his Ph.D and has been working as a rehabilitation
officer for over two decades He has received awards, both at a
national and an international level, for his commendable work in
helping the leprosy-affected lead a normal life. The minister for
health and family welfare, Mr Thalavai Sundaram, inaugurated the
conference.

This article originally appeared in The Deccan Chronicle, the
largest newspaper in Chennai, India.