"We reject the Health Ministry's request to use the Sitanala Hospital as a national referral hospital for lepers because Tangerang is no longer a small town but has developed into a metropolitan city," Tangerang deputy mayor Arief Wismansyah said recently.

According to Arief, who owns the Sari Asih Group, which manages several hospitals in Tangerang and Serang, the 600 patients treated at the Sitanala Hospital come from various different regions.

"Tangerang has grown into a big city and the population, industry, trading and services are growing rapidly; so it is not a good idea to make it the center for lepers," he said.

The Jakarta Post observed that some leprosy patients at Sitanala Hospital are reluctant to return to their respective hometowns after they recover from the disease because they do not want to face discrimination.

"I have no hope to resume living in my village because my family members, my relatives and neighbors are all scared of me," an ex-Sitanala patient, who has resorted to begging to survive, told the Post.

"They regard leprosy as a disease of the cursed and contagious so they always stayed away from me. I can't stand it, so I decided to return to the hospital, although I have to live on begging here," Saleh, who came from Lampung, said.

There are about 5,000 former leprosy patients in Tangerang; most of whom live in a two hectare area behind the hospital known as Serba Guna.

The patients are cleared of the disease when they go a full year without showing any symptoms.

This community of ex-patients say they have been denied their social and economic rights, because of the stigma which continues to be associated with leprosy, which is also known as Hansen's disease.

Although it remains unknown exactly how it is transmitted, it is a medical fact that 95 percent of the world's population is naturally immune to Hansen's disease and that it can not be transmitted via touch alone.

- JP/Multa Fidrus

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