(AFP) Duquesne-Cremone, Côte d'Ivoire - Ivory Coast villager Mathieu Okoma Agoa stated, "My mother's house was broken into and set on fire a week before she passed away."
Women in the hamlet danced after her funeral, he claimed, since they believed that the evil had been vanquished.
Leprosy, which Okoma Agoa's mother had, caused her to be socially isolated long before she passed away. Additionally, the experience changed him as well. He declared, "I have permanent scars."
He is not alone in this.
The village head, Camille Kouassi Assi, described how his parents endured leprosy-related rejection all the way up to their passing. His voice quivered as he spoke about their struggle, and tears were streaming from his eyes.
Prior to Sunday's World Leprosy Day, both guys spoke with AFP. They reside in Duquesne-Cremone, a village in southern Ivory Coast that has served as a haven for leprosy patients and their kin suffering social marginalisation since the 1960s.
Duquesne-Cremone, which is located around 60 miles (100 kilometres) from the capital Abidjan, is named after an Italian city whose citizens provided the funding for its construction and a French priest.
We are at ease here.
It appears to be just another Ivorian village at first impression. However, this 2,800-person village is hidden from prying eyes because it is located at the end of a long road that winds through a vast forest.
54 patients are still present.
Kouassi Assi, a father of four and a math teacher, said to AFP in the home's tiny courtyard, "We feel at home here."
Gisele Abena, 29, was receiving care at the Raoul Follereau Institute, a hospital run by a French organisation of the same name, further down the same road.
The hospital has spent nearly a century battling skin infections like Buruli ulcer and leprosy.
Abena emerges from one of the 42 hectares' worth of pastel-colored structures, each of whose wide windows let in the heat of the tropics.
She is confined to a wheelchair because leprosy has destroyed her feet.
This place feels lovely to me, the mother of two commented. We are numerous, and I've made friends.
She is originally from Bondoukou in the northeast, but she has no desire to go back there and endure the stigma that the people there forced on her once more.
Massive ignorance
The director general of the Raoul Follereau Institute, Professor Bamba Vagamon, stated that the leprosy germ isolates its victims from society.
"The face and distinguishing characteristics are distorted. Both the patient and people who are familiar with him no longer recognise him "He clarified.
"It's as though he doesn't actually exist anymore. Given that the patient still has full mental capacity, I find this to be even more horrifying "said he.
According to him, between 70 and 80 percent of individuals experience depressed symptoms.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified 12 of the 20 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), including leprosy.
514 new instances were reported in the nation in 2022, although it is impossible to estimate the number of patients because antibiotic-based therapies are time-consuming and difficult to measure recovery from.
The staff wants the patients to eventually return to their families, even though they are frequently hesitant to have them back because they are so ignorant about the disease. Even though life in Duquesne-Cremone is a welcome relief from what the patients have experienced elsewhere, the staff still wants them to do so.
Extended gestation
Prolonged touch is how leprosy is spread. Due to the microbe's extremely sluggish growth, the incubation period can last up to five years. The initial signs include spots that slowly eat away at the limbs.
Vagamon continued, "There is no test that can identify a case of leprosy before the onset of physical signs.
In order to create a screening method, his institute will soon turn into a research centre with a focus on NTDs.
Vagamon is sure that the "zero leprosy by 2030" goal established by the Ivorian health ministry in 2022 can be achieved, especially with the help of increasing student awareness.
Children in rural settings frequently suffer from a variety of skin conditions, accounting for 10% of leprosy cases.
According to Pierre Bazie, deputy headteacher of the Djougbosso village school, "They frequently arrive to class exhausted and have problems concentrating because they itch a lot."
They are aware of the risks associated with the condition since they are the target of state-sponsored screenings funded by the Raoul Follereau Institute.
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