My fascination with leprosy came not from personal experience the way my interest in depression did; I was intrigued by the illness we call "leprosy" because I knew very little about it.  The one thing I did know - or thought I knew - is that it's gotta be pretty bad if it took a Jesus miracle to heal lepers in the old days. 

​

My hope is that by spending some time talking about leprosy - what it is, what we think it is - we can move forward talking about depression with a much better understanding of the gap. 

​

​

​​​​​​The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, "When a person has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot, and it turns into a case of leprous disease on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests, and the priest shall examine the diseased area on the skin of his body.  And if the hair in the diseased area has turned white and the disease appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a case of leprous disease.  When the priest has examined him, he shall pronounce him unclean."

Leviticus 13:1-3

​

​

Leprosy is an old, conspicuous example of how far our

misunderstanding of an illness can take us.

​

There is an unavoidable religious component to the

disease; lepers are mentioned in the Bible now and

again, always characterized as outsiders or foreigners

and as pitiable barely-humans.  Looking carefully at

the language in the Bible itself, it becomes clear how

the uncleanliness used to characterized leprosy was

not just being applied to the skin lesions and sores

symptomatic of the disease, but to the leper's moral

condition. 

​

Leviticus shows us that leprosy was barely thought of

as a disease at all; rather than being assessed by a

doctor or physiological healer, the law of leprosy

outlined in Leviticus calls for a priest to proclaim the

leper as unclean.

​

Once you are proclaimed unclean, you are outcast

from society, expected to exist only on the margins

with others of your kind.  The disease was terrifying to

people because it produced as one of its symptoms

an unsightly skin condition, including lesions, dry

patches, growths, swelling and ulcers.

​

It was also considered highly contagious - part of the

reason (besides their unsightliness) lepers were shunned

by the general population.

​

And, to top it off, it was considered incurable.  The only way to get clean, apparently, was to beg for God's forgiveness:

​

​

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.  And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us."  When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests."  And as they went they were cleansed.

Luke 17:11-14

​

This cleansing of the ten lepers is a well-known Biblical excerpt; Jesus, known for his miracles, was miraculously able to cure ten people who were considered unclean and incurable.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

​

​

 

While this stuff from thousands of years ago might seem irrelevant today, especially since we rarely hear news related to leprosy these days, let's keep in mind two things:

​

1. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "The number of new [leprosy] cases reported globally in 2015 was 211,973 (2.9 new cases per 100,000 people)"

​

2. Leper colonies still exist, even within the United States.  In 2015, there were still patients living in Kalaupapa. 

​

It does seem like we've come a long way, though, doesn't it?  The number of leper colonies worldwide has decreased, along with the prevalence of the disease itself (down 99% since 1983). 

​

We've even come so far as to give leprosy a medical

name: Hansen's Disease, doctor Armauer Hansen being

the first to view the bacteria-based illness with a

microscope in 1873.  Not that anybody actually knows it's

called Hansen's Disease, of course.

​

Here are a few other things most people don't know

about leprosy:

 

1. Leprosy is incredibly easy to treat. According to

the WHO, 6 months to 2 years on antibiotics will do

the trick.

​

2. It's also pretty rare.  You are at greater risk for

contracting the disease if you have prolonged, close

contact with someone who has it and is not being treated

for it (once you start treatment, you are no longer

contagious). Not to mention 95% of adults worldwide are

naturally immune to Hansen's Disease. 

​

Yet it's fair to say that most of us - myself included - hear the word leprosy and still think of a distorted body.  We hear the word leper (most commonly used in the term "social leper") and automatically imagine the foreigner, somebody who simply does not belong.

​

For some reason, our knowledge and feelings about this illness Hansen's Disease derive not from modern research, but from the outdated, stigmatized image of a biblical leper.  This wouldn't necessarily be a problem if not for the fact that we don't know that we don't know.

​

And this - the not knowing and the thinking we know when really we don't - is also a symptom of the gap.

​

The consequences?  Well, for those with Hansen's Disease, they might still be looked at in horror as we continue to mistake the symptoms of the disease for the disease itself.  They are probably still ostracized, maybe not to the point where they are forced into leper colonies, but most likely enough to make them feel less than human. 

​

What happens when this gap exists in a disease that doesn't have an objective presentation?

​

After all, depression and leprosy are alike in many ways – in the condition of exile, in their both possessing separate colloquial definitions, but most importantly, in the fact that what is true about each disease is not always what shows up in their respective social constructions.

​

The similarities between the two illnesses make it useful to think of depression as a sort of modern-day leprosy.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

So now that we can see the logic error of leprosy, let's talk about depression - a disease much more prominent in numbers, yet way harder to see.

​

​

​

​