Lepers.

Lepers!

Even leprosy.

We are lepers.

Look, lepers!

By Rome's will, lepers, outcasts without hope.

He's a leper! Throw him out! He'll infect us all.

Even members of the medical profession have been known to discriminate against patients with leprosy.

Seized by fear that spreads like leprosy through the camp.

They are not to be denied admission to or expelled from schools or training programs on the grounds of leprosy.

Bobo called me on the phone from Yale Medical School, and Bobo said, Shawn, I have leprosy.

Bobo called me on the phone (Laughter) from Yale Medical School, and Bobo said, Shawn, I have leprosy.

Many of the problems faced by people affected by leprosy today stem from society s ignorance about the disease.

But leprosy is very hard to develop most people have a built in immunity to it and have nothing to fear.

They state that no one should be discriminated against on the grounds of having or having had leprosy.

Compared to the numbers who fall ill with diseases such as HIV AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, however, leprosy almost pales into insignificance.

In affirming the rights to which people affected by leprosy and their family members are entitled, the Principles and Guidelines reveal the extent of discrimination and the forms that it has taken.

But I had to sleep with a kola nut next to my bed, buried in sand, and give seven coins to seven lepers and so on.

I hope that they will take them to heart and address once and for all the long standing injustices that for too long have pushed too many people with leprosy to the margins of society.

It must be used by states as a roadmap to bring about an end to the unjust and intolerable discrimination that those with leprosy face.

In other words, people should not be discriminated against on the grounds of having or having had leprosy or, indeed, any disease.

Yet, even after a person is free of the disease, the stigma attached to leprosy has the potential to disrupt people s lives in ways that no drug can cure.

Encourages Governments to make every effort to include leprosy education in school curricula so as to give correct information about leprosy and leprosy patients and their families and prevent discrimination against them

Likewise, they have the right to work and be treated on an equal basis with others vis à vis recruitment, hiring, promotion, and salary. They are not to be denied admission to or expelled from schools or training programs on the grounds of leprosy.

They call on governments to abolish discriminatory legislation and remove discriminatory language from official publications to provide the same range and quality of health care to persons affected by leprosy as to those with other diseases and to promote social inclusion.

We call on states to use the opportunity afforded by the UN s historic resolution to work toward a world where people affected by leprosy and their family members can live with dignity and play their part in the life of the community.

The Principles and Guidelines that were unanimously adopted by the Human Rights Council convey the nature and scale of the problem. In affirming the rights to which people affected by leprosy and their family members are entitled, the Principles and Guidelines reveal the extent of discrimination and the forms that it has taken.

But what is not acceptable is the way that people with leprosy, those cured of it, and even their family members continue to be discriminated against on the basis of fears, myths, and outdated notions about a disease that is today completely curable.

We can accept the fact that the sites of other newspapers whose journalists don't even read them to be bad and inaccessible but it is unacceptable for the paper with the largest circulation and income to have a website which consistently suffers from technical problems.