Don't Fence Me in: From Curse to Cure. Leprosy in Modern Times

It is a condition shrouded in mystery, legend, religious fanaticism and centuries of vilification of its sufferers around the world. By the sheer accident of mycobacterial infection, its sufferers have been condemned to exile, imprisonment and even the imputation of moral taint, as if the illness itself were a punishment. Still today, leprosy remains a mysterious condition, the very word conjuring up vivid associations, both metaphorical and real. Through the lives of individual men and intrepid doctors, ubiquitous missionaries and a vast spectrum of patients, Tony Gould traces the mysterious history of this disease apart.