Efforts are being stepped up to eradicate leprosy from one country but the government still relies on hundreds of 'leper colonies'.

Picture the scene. It’s 1961 and I’m a young white boy living in a small village named Zomba in Malawi. My parents and I ...

Former leprosy patient Tereza Alves dos Santos, 71, sits in her room in Hospital Curupaiti, part of a former leprosy colony, on June 10, 2015 in the Jacarepagua neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro ...

Residents of the leper colony in the Alaba Rago area of Ojo and Okobaba Destitute Home, Ebute Metta, Lagos State, are trapped in a cycle of poverty, illness, and neglect. Without access to ...

Is a Chinese leper colony like any other town? China has pledged to improve living conditions for the 20,000 leprosy sufferers living in its 600 state-run colonies.

John Tayman's book The Colony tells the story of Molokai, the slice of Hawaiian paradise that was turned into an infamous 19th century leper colony. Tayman discusses the book with Renee Montagne.

"Grove was one of the individuals who recognized what a mistake that would be, that Asheville could literally become a leper colony for tuberculosis," said Bruce Johnson, author of two books about ...

South Sudan has shut down a leper colony outside Juba, long a refuge for the sick and vulnerable who are now finding themselves squeezed out of a booming capital in the world's newest country. Dr ...

Although leprosy patients can be freed from the disease with antibiotic treatment, the stigma can last a lifetime. The public is still frightened of the disease, Marks said.

In ancient times, no one really knew who was susceptible to leprosy or how it was spread. Which is why leper colonies were formed. It was a way to quarantine people and keep the disease under control.