The New Face of Leprosy
Leprosy is feared as a highly contagious and grossly disfiguring disease which is incurable and only strikes in the Third World. None of these ideas are true.
In the USA last year there were new cases of leprosy.
One of them, Marit, is 14 and Danish by birth. She will recover completely and have no deformities whatsoever, thanks to a cure discovered 30 years ago at Carville
Hospital, on the banks of the Mississippi river.
Leprosy is seldom highly contagious and 95 out of every 100 individuals are immune to it, wherever they live. Even deformities - which are not caused directly by the disease - can now be alleviated by surgery.
But despite the cure and natural immunity, there are still 12 million victims throughout the world. Why? Narrator Paul Vaughan Film editor JOHN GAREAU
Horizon editor ROBIN BRIGHTWELL Written and produced by MICHAEL SELVA BARNES