Mother Teresa: a biography

A HIDEOUS DISEASE
In trying to help those afflicted by leprosy, Mother Teresa faced a spe-
cial kind of problem. The disease, also known as Hansen’s disease, has
been documented since biblical times. It is a particularly insidious ail-
ment, striking people with little warning. The bacterium that causes lep-
S H I S H U B H AVA N A N D S H A N T I N A G A R
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rosy attacks the nervous system and destroys the body’s ability to feel pain.
Without pain, people injured themselves without always knowing it. In-
juries become infected and resulted in tissue loss. Fingers and toes become
shortened and deformed as the cartilage is absorbed into the body.
Early symptoms include discolored or light patches on the skin accom-
panied by loss of feeling. When the nerves are affected, small muscles be-
come paralyzed, which leads to the curling of the fingers and thumb.
When leprosy attacks nerves in the legs, there is no sensation in the feet.
The feet can become subject to erosion through untended wounds and in-
fection. If the facial nerves are affected, a person loses the blinking reflex
of the eye, which can eventually lead to dryness, ulceration, and blind-
ness. Bacilli entering the mucous lining of the nose can lead to internal
damage and scarring, which in time causes the nose to collapse. The dis-
ease is assisted in its spread by unsanitary conditions, coughing, and sneez-
ing. In a small household with poor sanitation, it is easy for the entire
family to become infected.
The disease also carried with it, in India and elsewhere, a deep social
stigma. The fear of becoming contaminated often prompts lepers to be
banished. After the Gobra hospital closed, there was no place for many of
the lepers in Calcutta to go except the slums and the countryside, where
many died neglected. Even when a person recovered from the disease,
they were still shunned by the community and often could not find hous-
ing, work, or help—the social stigma of the disease was that prevalent.
Although leprosy had all but disappeared in Europe and North Amer-
ica by the sixteenth century, it still existed in Asia, Africa, South Amer-
ica, and the Middle East. In 1873 Dr. Armauer Hansen of Norway
discovered the bacteria that causes the disease, and a cure was almost a
century away. During the 1950s, when Mother Teresa opened her first mo-
bile clinics, leprosy was treated with dapsone pills. However, the leprosy
bacilli began developing dapsone resistance hindering successful treat-
ment.