Discrimination against leprosy patients and their families: the situation (early 2005) in West Darfur, Sudan.

Sudan (population 33·5 million) has suffered civil war and disruption for the past 21 years. Conflict in the Darfur region in the West of Sudan, bordering Chad, has displaced 1·5 million and resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Many have been forced out of their traditional areas into makeshift situations with limited supplies of water and food, together with difficulties in accessing help from government and non-government agencies. Following a preliminary baseline report for The Leprosy Mission Sudan on a leprosy village called Ashara Biyuut (literally Ten Houses), near Geneina, West Darfur, we recently interviewed a random sample of 51 ‘heads of household’ in the same village, 16 of whom had been rejected (refused admission) to the Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps set up in their area by various agencies. They were thus systematically excluded from any humanitarian intervention or help which might have been available at the time, on the basis of their being affected by leprosy. The following are typical statements from six different patients interviewed: