Leprosy Mailing List – May 8, 2021
Ref.: (LML) Leprosy Cure
From: Henk Eggens, Santa Comba Dão, Portugal
Dear Pieter,
The question from Dra Laila de Laquiche (LML, May 7, 2021) is pertinent and raises issues.
My mentor, Piet Feenstra, used to tell a cynical story about a patient that had just completed his MDT course. The physician told the patient: "Congratulations! You are cured of leprosy!" The patient looked sad, raised his deformed hands and said: " I do not feel cured at all, doctor!"
So, when you ask for criteria for cure, whose criteria are you considering?
WHO's? The attending physician's? The patient's? Society's with leprosy-associated stigma?
There are surely different criteria for cure of the disease, cure of the illness and cure of the sickness. I found these definitions of the three key words in the sentence above:
"Disease then, is the pathological process, deviation from a biological norm. Illness is the patient's experience of ill health, sometimes when no disease can be found. Sickness is the role negotiated with society." *)
I am sorry, I have no answers. Just more questions.
Henk Eggens
*) Kenneth M Boyd: Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts; Med. Humanit.Med. Humanit.2000;26;9-17. doi:10.1136/mh.26.1.9
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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