Sarah J spoke with Tim Hunt

Leprosy is a disease of poverty. Most people are naturally immune but over 90% of people affected by leprosy live in developing countries where resources are scarce. Medical and lifestyle interventions are essential to prevent disability and blindness. Millions of people have visible deformities and approximately 30% of people affected by leprosy have irreversible disabilities. Helping to transform and empower the lives of people affected by leprosy, the Leprosy Mission work in around 30 countries across Africa, South Asia and East Asia. To find out more Sarah J spoke with Tim Hunt, the General Manager of TLM Trading.

Sarah: What is the Leprosy Mission?

Tim: The Leprosy Mission is a Christian charity that was set up in the late 1800s. We're an organisation ministering in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to those who are affected by leprosy. We meet both their physical needs and their social and spiritual needs as well. We raise money in the west and now more often in the east as well. We have hospitals and workers for Asia, South East Asia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Africa where there's high prevalence of leprosy.

Sarah: Obviously a lot's changed since the 1800s. What's the current picture of leprosy and how does it affect people?

Tim: It's still a big problem I'm afraid. There's about a quarter of a million new cases a year, that's the reported ones. There's a lot more than that and there's about four or five million people who are living with the consequences.

Leprosy is basically a bacterium that immediately goes to the coldest part of the body, which are typically your feet; where we work, people are bare foot. Feet, hands and faces are affected the most and it damages nerves. If it's caught early before its damaged nerves then its fine, we can cure it and generally speaking it's cured quite quickly and easily using multiple drug therapy. If it's left and the nerves are damaged, then unfortunately as soon as they're damaged, they're damaged for life, there's no going back.

We can cure someone of leprosy, but they still live with the consequences of leprosy, for example they can't feel anything in their fingers or their feet. People who walk around barefoot can pick up ulcers, but they don't know it because it doesn't hurt them because they can't feel the pain. It's those infections from ulcers that cause damage to things like toes, fingers etc, and that's what causes amputation rather than leprosy being a flesh eating disease which a lot of people think.

A lot of our work is caring for people who are cured of leprosy but are living with the consequences of it, which is normally a disability. People of different cultures conceive a disability and they think, oh they've had leprosy; the social stigma is still horrendous despite a lot of education and work that us and other agencies have been doing over the years.

Sarah: The people who tend to be leprosy affected are people in some of the most disadvantaged areas aren't they?

Tim: Yes. It's a disease of poverty. Most westerners couldn't catch leprosy if they tried; our immune system is too good. If you've been brought up on a very poor diet, malnutrition etc, you are more prone to catch it; although even then it's still very hard to catch. It's the most difficult disease to catch. You'd probably need prolonged contact with a person to pick it up. We think it's transacted through aerial droplets; through sneezing or sharing a mug over a prolonged period; or something like that. You'd be very unlikely to catch it.

Sarah: What can be done to help people financially who are suffering from this?

Tim: The best thing to do isn't just about money it's about getting them back into their communities. What we do is identify pockets of leprosy communities; they end up living together in communities as they've been cast out from their own societies. They normally end up where the hospitals are and villages and communities build up. We go in and we look at projects that they can do.

In India if you form a self help group, you save up a tiny amount of money for six months; you keep meetings going regularly which we're getting the people to do and after six months they're entitled to a grant from the government. They can use the funds from that grant to buy some chickens or some buy some stocks or crisps or something; open up a corner store or something like that. A tiny amount of money is all they need to get a business going. They're earning their own living; they're not begging and all of a sudden they've got dignity; they're someone in society. Persuading them to keep going for three to six months is the tough bit.

Something else we do is we reunite families; for example, a husband who has leprosy would feel it's in his family's best interest to leave the family. It's not just that he gets thrown out. We would reunite them once he's got a living and get them back together.