(January 30, 2010) "Leprosy, known also as Hansen's disease, in reality continues
infecting annually hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. According to the most
recent data published by the World Health Organization, in 2009 more than 210,000
new cases were recorded,” said the president of the Vatican's health care council.
Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski made this call in a letter for World Leprosy Day, to be
celebrated in 2010 this Sunday calling people to be in solidarity with people who
still suffer from this ancient disease. This number does not include the many presumed
to be ill but who are not counted in any census and are deprived of medical care,
generally because of extreme poverty. The archbishop noted that from a statistical
point of view, the countries that are most affected are in Asia, South America and
Africa. India has the greatest number of affected people, followed by Brazil. Numerous
cases are recorded also in Angola, Bangladesh, the Central African Republic, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nepal and Tanzania. "Hansen's
disease is an 'ancient' illness, but, because of this, no less devastating physically
and also morally," Archbishop Zimowski reflected. "In all ages and civilizations,
the fate of the leprosy sufferer is marginalization, being deprived of any type of
social life, condemned to seeing his body disintegrate until death comes." The Vatican
official noted how today, there is effective treatment for leprosy, and nevertheless,
it continues to spread. The archbishop appealed to the international community to
take up effective strategies to stop leprosy. He concluded with a prayer: "May
Mary health of the sick sustain the sick in the difficult struggle against suffering
and the penury caused by the disease of leprosy."