Leprosy in Hawaii

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In class this past Friday, Professor Bonica shared several stories with us about different communities and how they dealt with health issues. One particular story that stuck with me was one about Leprosy in Hawaii. In the 1800s, Hawaii was being attacked with major diseases, that were spreading very fast, damaging their whole population. One of these diseases was leprosy. So Hawaii’s strategy was to send all of the diseased individuals to Kalaupapa, on the island of Molokai. They chose to quarantine all of the ill to try and stop this highly infectious disease.

I thought this was so interesting because back then there was no treatment for this terrible disease so the people of Hawaii had to make a tough call. They chose to forcefully remove infected people from their lives regardless of if they had children or a wife, no matter what, and force them to stay on an island full of other diseased people. This is what health care management was in the 1800s. It really makes me think of how far we have come in management. Because of our advancements in medicine, I won’t have to make such a moral decision on isolating people to an island full of disease or not. Of course, there will be moments of tough calls, but the stakes will be easier because of the health care world we have built. 

Comments

  1. Mark BonicaOctober 30, 2017 at 4:29 PM

    It's a shocking story. We're wealthier now than we were, so we don't have to do such terrible things anymore for the most part.

    Here's a little story about it: http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/09/health/leprosy-kalaupapa-hawaii/index.html

    ReplyDelete

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