Leprosy is a disease which starts with the skin
and slowly penetrates deeper and deeper into the body, to the extent that it
may cause the deformity of the physical features. The fear that was attached with this disease
from the times of Jesus is still prevalent among people of Asia. The focus of
fear is the disfiguration of the body parts, and hence certain social stigmas
are attached to this disease.
The bacteria that causes this disease is
mycobacterium leprae, and it is a completely curable disease. But the criterion
for cure is proper medication and consistent treatment. The symptoms of this
disease are slow to being visible and so, often leprosy is diagnosed at quite a
later stage. This thus, becomes the reason for people to wrongly believe that
leprosy occurs only in adults. The fact is that it can afflict the children
too, but is generally diagnosed very late.
The symptoms of leprosy include reddening and
inflammation on the skin t its initial stages. Later this may start growing
into pimple sizes and finally into lumps. The medication in its treatment
should always include two to three types of medicines, one of which should be
an antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medicines, as there remains a possibility
of inflammation as a reaction to the medicine. The patient affected with this
might experience numbness or a tingling sensation in those areas where these
spots occur, or might even lose any kind of feeling at all.
The Gospel for Asia is a group of
missionaries working in mostly the South Asian countries where they have been
taking care of lepers since 1999. They are a team of volunteers who help people
afflicted with different problems like lack of education, disaster relief, lack
of medication, lack of hygiene and most importantly for all those who have lack
of hope and faith. These missionaries through their leprosy ministry try to
bring back the hope into their lives by showing them the various ways in which
Lord Jesus Christ is taking care of them and helping them fight with this
socially abhorred disease.
This disfiguring disease has caused many a
capable persons to be rejected by the society just because their bodies were
deformed. This is because of the unfortunate fact, that in Asia the diagnosis
and medication are available after a lot of delay, but if proper care is taken
on time, patients are reported to have become completely fit to get back into
the normal society and show off their talents to the whole world.
It is all about a little care, compassion and
encouragement that these socially deprived people need, after all it is not for
their own fault that they have ended up in a situation like this. So just like
the Gospel
for Asia who holds back no worries while working with these people and
taking Christ’s love to them, if everyone who is capable comes forward to
extend their helping hand, this deforming disease can surely be driven away.
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