India

India is one of main endemic countries in the world where leprosy is found, indeed 64% of all new leprosy cases registered worldwide are from India.

In India, leprosy was first described in the Susruth Samhita. For hundreds of years people affected by leprosy in India were isolated and segregated. Communities were hostile to them and patients were also afraid to mix with others. The first leprosy asylum was built in Kerala at Pallipuram by Dutch in 1728, and many other leprosy colonies were established following the commencement of British rule in India in 1858. The Indian Leper's Act was passed in 1898 in order to segregate and provide medical treatment to leprosy patients. Chaulmoogra oil was long used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine in India for the treatment of leprosy and various skin conditions, until Dapsone was found to have antileprosy properties in the 1940s.

When a cure for leprosy was identified in the form of Multi Drug Therapy (MDT), this came into wide use from 1982 following the recommendations of WHO. Since then the services for leprosy patients in India have gradually changed from institutional to outpatient care through health centres and field clinics. Gradually people affected by leprosy in India have begun to be more accepted by the community as a result of intensive health education and the visibly successful results of MDT. However, there is still a long way go in the fight against the stigma and human rights abuses which many Indians affected by leprosy continue to suffer.