ESSAYS: LEPROSY

Officially, leprosy has been long eradicated in Romania. Nevertheless, Tichilesti hospital, one of the last few leper colonies in Europe, still hosts about twenty leper patients.

These people are not contagious and most of them have no marks on their bodies. They are no longer confined, but they choose to live here, because Tichilesti is much more than a hospital. It is a community, a way of life.

Tichilesti, Romania, 2008

Ioana Miscov, 79 years old, rests in her house after eating her breakfast. Ioana has been living here since she was 11 years old, when she was first brought by train, in an animal wagon.
  
Ion Vasile Grigore, 70 years old, rests in the shade of his room on a hot day. Ion, who also suffers from a mild case of mental retardation, was committed to Tichilesti when he was a child.
  
Domnica Miscov, Ioana's daughter, picks flowers from the garden that she takes care of in front of their baptist church. Though both her parents had leper, she grew up healthy among the patients.
     
  
Mihai Dinescu, 58 years old, sits in his room, surrounded by memories from his mother Maria, also a leper, pictured in the frame in the upper right corner of the wall behind him. Mihai has been here for 14 years. His mother had spent most of her life in Tichilesti, until she passed away in 2004.
  
Costica Serban admits that most of his wounds were due to his negligence.
  
Victoria Chiselev, 84 years old, takes a break from picking grass to feed her chickens. Victoria was first committed to Tichilesti hospital when she was 16. It was here that she met her husband Lazar, with whom she lived 30 years outside the hospital, in a village nearby, after the first treatment. They came back to Tichilesti when the disease recurred.
     
  
Ioana Miscov uses an axe to chop cabbage leaves for her chickens. Ioana's hard work shows on her hands. Leper is a disease of the peripheral nerves, such as those of the limbs, which lose their sensitivity, leading to unnoticed skin inuries.
   
Ioana uses her fists to get back to the house after feeding the chickens. Her energy, however, often pays a tribute: the following day, Ioana was in bed all day long, after her right hand got injured and swelled.
   
Costica was first committed as a young man and released a few years later, after treatment. An indisciplined life style, combined with alcohol abuse, weakened his immune system, thus allowing the disease to return.
     
  
Domnica hands over a book during prayer in the Baptist church.
   
Every week, there are Baptist and Orthodox religious services in the community. Most people attend both.
   
A patient walks out of the treatment room and heads for his house. Although the disease is no longer active, some patients still suffer from wounds and need to have their bandages changed every day.