Leprosy
Mailing List, June 17th, 2009
Ref.:
The
legacy of
Brazil
’s leper colonies
From:
Both
P., Apeldoorn, The Netherlands
Dear
Dr Noto,
You
may recall that I responded earlier to an e-mail exchange following
mail published in LML written by Ms Elisabeth Poorman, which
was about the use of words, in that case ''elimination of leprosy''.
I
read the first pages of the above mentioned article (LML May 30th,
2009) written by Ms Elisabeth Poorman about the legacy of
Brazil
's ''leper'' colonies and I wonder why the term ''leper'' appears.
If
this is just a reference to a word/name of a colony used in the past
and in the context of un-masking ill-intentions of that time? In
that case I can understand the use of the term, but in the text of the
article the term ''leper'' continues to be used, even in the context
of research done in 2005 - 2007. I
just don't understand! Although my interest in ''leprosy'' was raised
in the 60th, when I read a book in which the life of patients was
described in a colony/leprosarium in
Brazil
in those 60th, I lost my concentration to read the article to the
''bitter'' end.
Can
Ms Poorman assure me I should continue to read and find the
change in terminology somewhere as a clue to the un-masking of ill
intentions of former leprosy workers? The
book I read about leprosy in
Brazil
gave me a very high esteem of the persons involved in care!
I
am not sure whether you would want to publish this at LML. If
you wish you could forward my question to Ms Elisabeth to her e-mail
address which I do not have.
Yours
sincerely,
Piet
Both
TLM
Country Development Director
