Fw: (LML) A remote Hawaiian outpost and former leprosy colony free of corona

 

Leprosy Mailing List – January 22,  2021

 

Ref.:  (LML) A remote Hawaiian outpost and former leprosy colony free of corona

 

 

From:  Pieter AM Schreuder, Maastricht, the Netherlands

 

 

Dear colleagues,

 

Some positive news in these difficult times.

 

Best wishes,

 

Pieter AM Schreuder

 

 

 

"A remote Hawaiian outpost and former leprosy colony

 January 22, 2021  Pehal News Team 

According to Hawaii health officials, a resident,  who had travelled outside Kalawao County in December, tested positive for corona, ending Kalawao County's spectacular run being corona free. The person involved adopted the county's self-quarantine rule upon arrival, and prevented what may have been a disastrous outbreak.

 

The undeniable fact that Kalawao County remained virus-free can partially be attributed to geography. Located on the small island of Molokai, its single city, Kalaupapa, can solely be reached by mountaineering down 1,600-foot cliffs, catching a uncommon flight on a small aircraft or making an arduous three-mile trek by mule. That seclusion additionally explains its painful historical past: In 1865, Hawaii determined that anybody identified with leprosy — now often called Hansen's illness — could be exiled there for all times.

 

In 1969, after a treatment for Hansen's illness was launched, Hawaii lastly overturned the necessary quarantine coverage. But some sufferers opted to stay on the island as a result of they'd grown accustomed to the approach to life and feared the stigma that they could face elsewhere. Though a lot of the Kalawao County is now a national park, roughly a dozen survivors nonetheless reside there in the present day, within the care of the state.

 

"Our patients are, on average, 86 years old. They all have other health issues, so they're at extreme high risk for covid mortality," Baron Chan, the department chief for Hansen's illness on the Hawaii Department of Health, told KHON in October.

 

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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