 |
| 1874 |
'The
Mission to Lepers' is born when friends of Wellesley and Alice
Bailey promise to raise £30 a year to help leprosy sufferers
in India. In the first year £600 is raised. |
|
| 1874-1893 |
The
Bailey's travel extensively to see the need of people affected
by leprosy and to encourage support work. |
| 1884 |
Mary
Reed, the Mission's first missionary, becomes Superintendent
of Chandag. |
 |
| 1917 |
The
Mission has extended its work throughout India and the Far
East, and is working in 87 programmes in 12 countries, with
support auxiliaries in 8 countries. First experiments with
treatment. |
 |
| 1917-1937 |
Over
the next 20 years people with leprosy are offered hope for the
first time as treatment with Chaulmoogra oil becomes widespread.
Injections are painful, and only a few are cured, but the
era of cure sees the outlawing of the word "asylum",
and the introduction of its replacement "hospital". |
 |
| 1940s |
The
first effective cure for leprosy, dapsone, is introduced.
Over the next 15 years millions of patients are successfully
treated. |
| 1946 |
 |
Dr
Paul Brand and colleagues at Karigiri, South India,
pioneer life-changing reconstructive surgery to correct
leprosy related disabilities. |
|
| 1950s |
The
Mission's work extends into Africa, as the dapsone research
extends. |
| 1960s |
Leprologists
work to discover new drugs effective against leprosy as many
patients are discovered to have dapsone resistant leprosy. |
| 1965 |
The
Mission changes its name to The Leprosy Mission to avoid using
the negative connotations of the word "leper". |
| 1970s |
Dramatic
increase in TLM's outpatient work as programmes outreach to
treat people in their own homes through the S E T programmes
(Survey, Education and Treatment). |
 |
|
1981 |
WHO
recommends a new combination drug treatment for leprosy, Multidrug
therapy to overcome dapsone resistance. People cured in as
little as six months. |
| 1990s |
As
more people are released from treatment "Care after Cure",
for people with lasting disabilities becomes increasingly
important in social, economic and physical rehabilitation. |
2000s |
The quest for a leprosy vaccine continues. Although
leprosy is completely curable, there are still over 266,000
new cases of leprosy diagnosed per year. The challenges of
treating and rehabilitating those affected by leprosy while
breaking down the stigma of the disease remain. |
