Malaysia's leprosy colony closes

The last residents of what was the world's second largest leprosy colony are looking to its future as centre of tolerance and enlightenment but with some trepidation.

All of its former patients are cured of the disease but they say a stigma still remains. Now they hope to establish a museum in its place to educate people about the disease.

Al Jazeera's Stephanie Scawen reports from Sung-ai Buloh, in Malaysia.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• asia-pacificnews
• Malaysia
• leprosy

[LordKaisen]

@heomak yup, its shit like this that makes me get angry at the western haters. We don't do this nonsense, the rest of the world sucks compared to the west.

[drakul2007]

@bennlonelyboy Agreed.

[FoamyShowme]

why are they speaking english

[heomak]

omg.this is 2012 and SOME ignorant people are still ostracizing other people based on the fact that they or their family suffer from leprosy..really?wow....disgust­ing attitude.

[Tsnore]

More of Mahathir's Asian values diba?

[595o]

@kurtilein3 Wiping out bacteria might be easier but still a hard task, you have to deal with non-resistances, bacteria going into "hiding" for while, etc.

[kurtilein3]

If the world would work together, then this is a disease we (humankind) could wipe out.

But if we hate people just becaue they lost toes and fingers or even entire limbs to the disease, we wont make it. If a person is cured, ACCEPT IT. BE GLAD. If a person is cured (bacteria wiped out from the system completely), be KIND, be NICE, ESPECIALLY IF the disease took fingers / a hand / a leg / a foot. Just dont be an asshole. Imagine if it hit you, and you lose a finger/toe each day for a week.

[RedPlumJam]

dasar penjajah yang tak tahu apa-apa sejarah negara bekas jajahannya ada hati nak mengajar orang. memang muka talam dua muka

[kurtilein3]

its a DISEASE, alright, and a curable one. Ostracising them will only make things worse and perpetuate it. If the nasty bacterium is gone, the person is cured, alright? Limbs may be lost, nerves destroyed, but if its gone, its gone. Just like poliomyelitis, polio. It gets in, does terrible, severe, life-lasting damage. But when its gone, its gone. People like Bill Gates want to wipe out polio globally, and thats a virus. Leprosy is just a bacteria, antibiotics can knock it out.

[squidfanny]

@RedPlumJam Seems to me that you're just a massive idiot without any actual thoughts or opinions. Good luck with your life of ignorance and stupidity.

bye