Chronic: Nurses treat patients at Sitanala Leprosy Hospital in Tangerang on Wednesday
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Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi has asked the public to help leprosy survivors fit into society by dismissing the stigma often attached to them.
Social aversion, she said, remained high and made it difficult for leprosy survivors to return to and be accepted in their neighborhoods or find work.
“The stigma in the public mind is still a major problem that former lepers have to deal with although they have totally recovered,” Nafsiah said on Wednesday on the sidelines of her visit to Sitanala Leprosy Hospital in Tangerang, west of Jakarta.
Nafsiah visited the hospital in observation of the 60th Anniversary of World Leprosy Day that fell on Jan. 27.
During her visit, she also inaugurated an integrated clinic for leprosy and a waste water treatment facility at the hospital.
World Health Organization (WHO) data in 2011 showed that Indonesia ranked third in the world in the number of fresh cases of leprosy, after India and Brazil, with 20,023 cases.
Around 5,000 former lepers still occupy a five-hectare plot at the Serba Guna complex behind the hospital due to public rejection.
The fact that most lepers were poor also exacerbated their situation, Nafisah said.
“It is a major challenge [for them] to improve their welfare,” she said.
She said physical deformity caused by leprosy should not discourage survivors from finding jobs because it could be treated and they could recover.
“What we need to do is help leprosy sufferers regain their self-confidence and independence, with support from all people,” Nafsiah said.
In an attempt to help former lepers and prevent them from becoming beggars, the Tangerang municipal administration employs around 1,600 of them as street sweepers and staff at the Rawa Kucing dump in Kedaung Wetan.
“Around 1,000 of them work as street sweepers and 600 others separate organic and non-organic waste at the dump site. They can earn money to support themselves while helping the administration create a clean and green city,” Tangerang mayor Wahidin Halim said.
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