Leprosy is treatable. It once wasn't. It tore a path through humanity in very recent history, though the topic of history and the word "recent" is an ambitious concept.
If you go to Venice on a holiday, and head to some of the smaller islands around the famous floating city, you will see the place I took this image.
Away from the Bridge of Sighs and the boutique keep-sake stores, the dead bodies have mostly decomposed, incinerated, or recycled by the universe. The ruins of this leper colony still leave their mark on the world.
The disease still has an impact, with most people hearing the word shuddering and thinking about horrific suffering and highly contagious pus-sputtering individuals living on the edge of society. Yet, the World Heatlh Organisation reports that in the last 20 years, 16 million people have been cured of leprosy.
Chicks do dig scars, so if you want to get some, be a social outcast for a while (Even though its not really contagious) you can. I don't suggest this is a good idea, and while there is a vaccine that is effective against leprosy, the fact that it tides from a bacterial contagion makes it mutable; and a risk; but one that can be treated with 12 months of antibiotics.
I wasn't thinking about this stuff when I saw the ruins while I cruised along on a boat. Reflecting on travel photography gives you time to pause and think more deeply about stuff.
scarry place.
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Cool pic! Beautiful and reflective.
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Thank you, certainly didn't think that at the time I captured it, glad to go back and look at this stuff with a fresh perspective. :)
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I believed that leprosy was incredibly contagious and it was still hard to cure, it is hard to believe that it is still around and 16 million people have been cured of leprosy in the last 20 years.
It definitely does give me a shiver thinking about it!
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I only decided to read up about it today, because I too, never fully understood it other than the stigma of the word. Fascinating what happens when you do some research! :)
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I think I saw a documentary about this on tv once. Very impressive views.
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Documentaries are the best type of things to see on TV :) Its funny how sites like this so close to major hubs of tourism so often go unnoticed.
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Definitely! Honestly, I would probably have missed it completely aswell. Though now that I saw your post, I'll check out if we can take a little trip there when we do a 3 city tour to Italy :-)
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I was there nearly ten years ago. Hopefully it would still be there, really cool if you could nab a photo of the same structure, ten years on!
If I recall, this was on the south side of Venice, heading towards some of the smaller island towns in the area. I was on a guided tour, and snapped literally thousands of images ... I think I spent more time looking through a lens than my own eyes.
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I can imagine! I think I'd be the same way. We're going to go there on a train tour, so I'm not sure how easy it will be for us to get around. All we have is our legs and maybe public transport, if we manage to figure that out :-)
Would be really awesome to see!
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Hmm, new plan for my vacation
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