Carville's Cure by Pam Fessler

A fascinating and shocking look at how people in the U.S. who were diagnosed with leprosy, now called Hansen's Disease, were treated. Traditionally, we thought of someone who suffered from the disease as having horrible disfigurement and being cast away from society for fear of catching the disease and scaring little kids. You were a social pariah and so little was known about the progression or how the disease was passed from person to person so we locked them all up and hid them. The first "home" for lepers was opened near New Orleans in a rundown plantation in squalid conditions but over the years it grew and was modernized. The inhabitants of Carville were treated as inmates, suffering from isolation from family and spouses. Pam Fessler has done her research and has shown us the "human" side of the story as well as the scientific breakthroughs. We get to know the people who lived with it and those who tried to find a cure and fight the social stigma. For anyone that is familiar with the disease or morbidly curious as I was about so called leper colonies or is intrigued by the early social and scientific practices of controlling diseases, this book is a must. Completely readable and gut-wrenching!  5 stars