Cape Town - The social impact of Covid-19, especially the aspect of isolating patients and the initial stigma associated with the illness in some areas, has been compared to that of leprosy.
The comparisons were made during the fifth annual Robben Island Museum memorial lecture on Friday night, which focused on the island’s past as a leper colony, and featured a conversation between medical experts, academics and students.
Infectious disease expert Dr Harlem Gongxeka, who is also the chief radiologist at Livingstone Tertiary Hospital, got the ball rolling with a presentation about leprosy.
On the controversial issue of whether there were any similarities between leprosy and Covid-19, Gongxeka said although the methods of contraction of the diseases and their infectious nature were similar, it could take up to 20 years for leprosy to become visible in some people.
He said with modern treatment, isolation of leprosy patients was no longer necessary.
On the other hand, he said, Covid-19 was a highly contagious and deadly disease. The incubation period was a matter of days, and immediate self-isolation was required to stop the disease from spreading to contacts.
On the question of stigma, Leprosy Mission Southern Africa director Peter Laubscher spoke of the social impact of the pandemic and drew strong parallels between the stigma attached to leprosy, HIV/Aids, Covid-19 and, most recently, monkeypox.
He said HIV/ Aids, Covid-19 and monkeypox had been referred to as “the new leprosy”, which in itself led to stigma.
He said unlike Covid-19, leprosy would never cause lockdowns across the world and that on an epidemiological level, comparing Covid-19 to leprosy was inaccurate.
Other speakers included Irish anti-apartheid missionary Father Richard O’Riordan, who spoke of leprosy patients being exiled during biblical times.
The compulsory segregation of leprosy patients ended in the 1970s, and legal restrictions on the movement of leprosy patients were lifted in recent decades, yet today there still exists, more than 100 laws world-wide, that place sanctions on people affected by leprosy.
