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The author argues that medical care in the Dutch East Indies, should be re-evaluated from successful to disastrous. The author first defines a medical disaster as one in which medical care has fallen short due to its own shortcomings- or even intentionally. This contrasts with a disaster for humankind, in which also many are to be regretted, but for which healthcare is not to blame, because of, for instance, a lack of resources, manpower or knowledge. The author then looks at three different types of medical care: Red Cross aid; the public health policy to eradicate leprosy; and the military medical aid given to the Indonesian population (1946-1949). In all these colonial interests were a priority, if not the driving force. Medical humanitarianism came second at best. This produced outcomes that should be called medically disastrous. Partly this is not new: medical historians have identified colonial medicine as a tool of empire before. But what it nevertheless had achieved, defined as the medical 'good', was seldom questioned, cutting off medical acts and their results from their context. The question must be asked if it isn't it time to call Dutch medical care in Indonesia disastrous in itself?

Our knowledge of how society viewed leprosy and treated its victims in the past is still scarce, especially in geographical regions and archaeological periods from where no written sources are available. To fill in some research gaps, we provide the comparative analysis of five previously described, probable cases with leprosy from the Avar-period Trans-Tisza region (Hungary). The five skeletons were subject to a detailed macromorphological (re-)evaluation. Where possible, the biological and social consequences of having leprosy were reconstructed based on the observed bony changes and mortuary treatment, respectively. The retrospective, macromorphology-based diagnosis of leprosy could be established in three cases only. Based on the detected skeletal lesions, all of them suffered from near-lepromatous or lepromatous leprosy. The disease resulted in aesthetic repercussions and functional implications, which would have been disadvantageous for these individuals, and limited or changed their possibilities to participate in social situations. They could have even required heavy time investment from their respective communities. The analysis of the mortuary treatment of the confirmed leprosy cases revealed no evidence of a social stigma. These findings indicate that the afflicted have not been systematically expulsed or segregated, at least in death, in the Early Middle Ages of the Carpathian Basin., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Augusto Bonome (1857-1922), professor at the University of Padua until 1922, was involved in a study about a particular kind of pulmonary leprosy, being the first to testify the lepromatous alterations also in the deepest parts of the respiratory tract, even though the same Gerhard Hansen (1841-1912) had denied the possibility that lungs could host Mycobacterium leprae., Objectives: It is necessary to reevaluate the research done by Bonome to also demonstrate how it can still be relevant today in further comprehension of leprosy., Methods: Bonome's advances in leprosy studies are testified by some specimens from the Morgagni Museum of Pathological Anatomy of the University of Padua. Among the specimens, there is a peculiar case of advanced tuberous leprosy in an adolescent, who died in 1908, of which the face, the larynx, the hands and genitals are still preserved today in the Museum., Results: Through autoptic and histological analysis of this specimen, Bonome succeeded in identifying a peculiar case of bone toxoid-infectious dystrophy besides characteristic leprous laryngitis, which caused the death of the young leprosy patient., Conclusions: The results confirmed the innovative research carried on by Bonome during his medical career, being among the first to offer an important contribution to improving and revolutionary knowledge on leprosy which could still be useful today., (© 2023 The Authors. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.)

Leprosy, one of the oldest recorded diseases in human history, remains prevalent in Asia, Africa, and South America, with over 200,000 cases every year. 1 , 2 Although ancient DNA (aDNA) approaches on the major causative agent, Mycobacterium leprae, have elucidated the disease's evolutionary history, 3 , 4 , 5 the role of animal hosts and interspecies transmission in the past remains unexplored. Research has uncovered relationships between medieval strains isolated from archaeological human remains and modern animal hosts such as the red squirrel in England. 6 , 7 However, the time frame, distribution, and direction of transmissions remains unknown. Here, we studied 25 human and 12 squirrel samples from two archaeological sites in Winchester, a medieval English city well known for its leprosarium and connections to the fur trade. We reconstructed four medieval M. leprae genomes, including one from a red squirrel, at a 2.2-fold average coverage. Our analysis revealed a phylogenetic placement of all strains on branch 3 as well as a close relationship between the squirrel strain and one newly reconstructed medieval human strain. In particular, the medieval squirrel strain is more closely related to some medieval human strains from Winchester than to modern red squirrel strains from England, indicating a yet-undetected circulation of M. leprae in non-human hosts in the Middle Ages. Our study represents the first One Health approach for M. leprae in archaeology, which is centered around a medieval animal host strain, and highlights the future capability of such approaches to understand the disease's zoonotic past and current potential., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests We have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The year 2024 is the Centenary of the foundation of the Leprosy Relief Association (Lepra), formerly the British Empire Leprosy Relief Association (BELRA). The name of the organization changed to the LEProsy Relief Association (LEPRA) in 1976 but has been known as Lepra since 2008. Over the years it has worked closely with members and office holders of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Its work has encompassed activities from the earliest initiatives to ensure appropriate living conditions for those with the disease to the development of leprosy chemotherapy. However, this has now evolved into a strong partnership between the UK- and India-based Lepra hubs, which are carrying out research and public health initiatives ranging from elimination of prejudice against those with leprosy to adopting the recently launched WHO programme for skin NTDs to facilitate integrated control and management regimens. The fight against leprosy has always been a partnership between a wide variety of disease-specific NGOs, health-care workers and international health agencies. The story of Lepra illustrates the central role of these partnerships and national as well as international collaboration., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.)

Between 1867 and 1933, the understanding of leprosy within the colonial medical establishment in Bombay city was fractured on two issues: whether leprosy was contagious and whether individuals with leprosy should be segregated. This article explores how legislation paved the way for resolving these issues in Bombay between 1867 and 1933. Furthermore, the article seeks to problematize the notion of "diseased bodies" or "lepers" through legislation to protect healthy individuals from possible degeneration. Leprosy in Bombay reflected the anxieties of the city's business elite who were averse to accommodating patients from other parts of British India. In addition, the article studies leprosy and "lepers" by analyzing archival documents and public health reports within the context of Bombay city.