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Some health experts have worried about the increase in the word ‘leper’ since the coronavirus pandemic swept the world in 2020.
Health activists have claimed the term “leper” was used recklessly by politicians and some others during the pandemic to comment on the stigma attached to COVID-19 patients. Some politicians have also complained that their countries are being portrayed as “leper countries”.
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However, this has increased the stigma around leprosy patients. “This kind of language perpetuates a mindset against people who still suffer,” said Mathias Duck, global advocacy manager at The Leprosy Mission, a UK charity. “Those affected were already marginalized before the pandemic, and the pandemic pushed leprosy even further on the priority list. “
Activists have now called for an end to the use of the “L-word”. The warning came after a UN report said people affected by leprosy had problems while having access to treatment and medicine. Some patients have also been made redundant and some have died in large numbers due to COVID-19.
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“People affected by leprosy were denied tests, treatments and vaccines for Covid. We insist on hand washing and masks, but these communities did not have access to this or even to food from base due to blockages, ”Duck said.
Volunteers speak out against the discrimination and the sense of abandonment that leprosy patients face. A 2019 UN report said that although it is a curable disease, leprosy has pushed many people into vulnerable areas, whether in the course of their work or their personal lives.
“What most people affected by leprosy want is to be called by name, not to be labeled by their condition,” Duck said.
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