The Bible tells us of two instances when Jesus Christ healed people with leprosy. In Matthew 8, the Lord reached out His hand and touched a leper, who was cleansed of his disease. In Luke 17, meanwhile, Jesus cured 10 lepers, only one of whom came back to express gratitude.
Sadly, though, this disease that has been present since biblical times continues to afflict many people despite the advances in medicine.
The good news is that people from various faiths have expressed willingness to work together to fight leprosy, just like what Jesus did.
Representatives of the world's major religions will gather in the Vatican this week to discuss ways to promote the prevention and find new treatments to leprosy.
Yohei Sasakawa, president of the non-profit organisation Nippon Foundation, explained that the conference, set to take place in Rome's Patristic Institute Augustinianum, will also tackle how to protect lepers from discrimination.
"It is a great power to have the leaders from all these major religions get together and talk about leprosy because the leaders from the different religions have the influential power to convince their believers," Sasakawa, the Japanese government's Goodwill Ambassador for the Human Rights of People Affected by Leprosy, told The Catholic News Agency.
He maintained that it is wrong to discriminate lepers, emphasising that the general public "should treat these leprosy-affected people as equally as they treat people with disabilities who could be living around them."
"This is the message that the religious leaders would be able to make in a very influential manner," Sasakawa explained.
Interreligious leaders from the world's main religions – including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism -- will lay down during the event how they can help care for lepers.
Thirty individuals who have been cured from leprosy, scientifically known as "Hansen's Disease," will also share how they were able to overcome the disease.
"The problem with leprosy is that even if these people are cured of this disease, they would still be facing stigma as well as discrimination from society and from the villages where they live, just because they used to be a patient of leprosy," Sasakawa said.
