Fontilles - Spain
Plaza Tetuán 6 bajo
46003 Valencia
SPAIN

Tel: +34/96 351 15 83
Fax: +34/96 351 11 87

fontilles@fontilles.org

www.fontilles.org

History

Fontilles was founded in 1902 by a lawyer Don Joaquín Ballester and a Jesuit priest, Father Carlos Ferris, in order to offer an improved quality of life and treatment to a great number of leprosy patients in the Alicante and Valencia region. A hospital, the Fontilles Colony Sanatorium - San Francisco de Borja, on the border of the Alicante and Valencia provinces, was opened in 1909, with the aim of performing a triple function: medical treatment, research and teaching. Since then adjusting to new needs in the fight against leprosy has been a first priority. This includes running annual courses for doctors, nurses and personnel working on anti-leprosy projects, and producing the only scientific leprosy journal in Spanish - Revista de Leprología Fontilles. Fontilles has also been supporting or running an increasing number of international projects. Fontilles became a Member of ILEP in 1969.

Priorities

The first priority is still the fight against leprosy, wherever it still exists. The number of new cases registered in the Sanatorium is down to a minimum. Therefore, activity is shifting outwards, with a growing number of international projects. Other new priorities include the training of field workers at home and abroad and supporting national plans to eradicate leprosy in endemic countries and regions. Raising awareness of leprosy in Spanish society, early detection of new cases, physical rehabilitation of people with leprosy, and achieving the socio-economic integration of patients are permanently on the agenda of Fontille's work. Nowadays, the co-operation projects of Fontilles include other neglected diseases and development projects in order to improve living conditions and prevent diseases.