Compassionate Exile

Interviews with former patients of the leprosarium in Makogai, Fiji. Now in their sixties they recount the effects of the disease, the reaction of society to them, the treatment, life on the island. Hansen's disease (leprosy) remains a public health problem in 55 countries (600,000 new cases are reported annually). With the aid of multi-drug therapy (MDT) the disease was eliminated from Fiji by 1993. The World Health Organisation had aims to eliminate the disease worldwide by 2000.