*This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated. 
 1994.
11.23 :  100th Anniversary of Hansen's Disease Center

Contact:  Public Health Service (HRSA)  
            Bonnie Aikman, (301) 443-3376             
          Hansen's Disease Center, 
            Julia Elwood    (504) 642-4755 
November 23, 1994

        PHS LAUDS HANSEN'S DISEASE CENTER'S 100TH ANNIVERSARY

     Assistant Secretary for Health Philip R. Lee today announced
a three-day event beginning Nov. 30 in celebration of the 100th
anniversary of the Gillis W. Long Hansen's Disease Center in
Carville, La.

     "The work done at this facility represents one of the most
stunning success stories in the nearly 200-year history of the
U.S. Public Health Service," said Dr. Lee, who directs the PHS, a
part of HHS.

     "Since the discovery of a clinical cure for Hansen's disease
in 1941 -- an event often called the 'Miracle of Carville' -- the
center has become one of the world's leading international
research centers and now contributes to progress in the treatment
of other diseases such as tuberculosis and diabetes.  It now 
serves as a compassionate and supportive home for about 130
patients -- many of them elderly -- whose families are unable to
care for them.  The techniques pioneered there have served as the
basis for ambulatory treatments available throughout the
country."

     On Dec. 1-2, experts from around the world will take part in
a colloquium in Baton Rouge, La., to share the latest research 
strategies for the Hansen's disease, which is still a significant
problem in some areas of the world. 

     Hansen's disease, long known as leprosy, is an infectious
condition that affects the skin, nerves and eyes.  Without proper
treatment, muscle deformity, bone infection, paralysis and
blindness can occur.  Norwegian physician Gerhard Henrik Hansen
discovered the bacterium that causes the disease.  

     The Bureau of Primary Health Care, a component of the Health
Resources and Services Administration within PHS, administers the
center as well as the 10 regional programs that care for
thousands of persons with Hansen's disease on an out-patient
basis.

     According to HRSA Administrator Ciro V. Sumaya, M.D.,
M.P.H.T.M., "The discovery that Hansen's disease could be treated
with the sulfone drug, promin, marked the beginning of the end to
the agonizing stigmatization surrounding this condition. 
Patients no longer would have to enter an isolated world --
losing their citizenship, their right to vote and marry and their
association with family and friends."

     About 6,000 persons in the United States currently have 
Hansen's disease.  Worldwide, some 2.4 million are affected.

                                 ###

NOTE TO EDITORS:  You may be interested in the following topics
as sidebar stories:

--Historical notes on the disease, including biblical references
to it and details about the night of Nov. 30, 1894, when seven
persons -- the first patients at the Louisiana Leper Home -- were
brought in secret by barge up the Mississippi River to an
abandoned plantation in Iberville, La.

--How current research in Hansen's disease at the Carville
facilities is being applied to other diseases, including the
development of effective treatment regimens against multi-drug
resistant tuberculosis, now on the rise in many U.S. cities, and
the hand and foot care techniques for diabetes patients that help
prevent the pain of the chronic, often infected foot ulcers that
can lead to leg amputations.

--Unusual medical aspects of Hansen's disease, including the fact
that despite major progress in treatment, its transmission --
while believed to be through inhalation -- has yet to be
scientifically established.  Also, while the bacillus
Mycobacterium leprae that causes Hansen's disease cannot be
cultured, it is grown in large quantities in the armadillo.