Leprosy Mailing List – January 22, 2020
Ref.: (LML) Leprosy Eponym: need for a medical name
From: Ajit P, Maharashtra, India
Dear Pieter,
In recent past, there have been a couple of communications regarding renaming leprosy or Hansen's disease.
The suggested alternative mycobacterial neurodermatosis, has the genuine chance of being confused with neurodermatitis. Neurodermatitis, as all dermatologists will know is a group of common skin conditions produced by habitual scratching and rubbing, the prototype being lichen simplex chronicus. Indeed, a Google search of the term neurodermatosis, returns results of neurodermatitis. Webster dictionary even defines neurodermatosis as dermatosis caused by or related to psycho-somatic or neurogenic factors.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/neurodermatosis
Regarding the objections raised against Hansen's disease, I would ask, who amongst us is without sin? Do we disregard the contribution of Dr Gerhard Hansen totally? It is true somewhere we draw a line, and hence we avoid Reiter's disease and say reactive arthritis, one of the reasons for which being, Hans Reiter was a Nazi war criminal.
And regarding leprosy, the issue is stigma. If we dermatologists ourselves say that the term leprosy should be avoided because of stigma, then in a way we are giving indirect approval to the concept that having leprosy is indeed a stigmatising thing.
Dr Ajit
Consultant dermatologist
India
LML - S Deepak, B Naafs, S Noto and P Schreuder
LML blog link: http://leprosymailinglist.blogspot.it/
Contact: Dr Pieter Schreuder << editorlml@gmail.com
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