A Disease Apart: Leprosy in the Modern World

This fascinating cultural and medical history of leprosy enriches our understanding of a still-feared biblical disease.

It is a condition shrouded for centuries in mystery, legend, and religious fanaticism. Societies the world over have vilified its sufferers: by the sheer accident of mycobacterial infection, they have been condemned to exile and imprisonment-illness itself considered evidence of moral taint.

Over the last 200 years, the story of leprosy has witnessed dramatic reversals in ...