Read an account of what life was like in America's national leprosarium—its leper colony

America had a national leprosarium—a leper colony—in Louisiana until 1999

Public health officials forcibly sent those diagnosed with leprosy to the Louisiana Leper Home in Carville, first founded in 1894. Listen to an interview about this site, its evolution, and how its residents advocated for themselves—including regaining the right to vote.

Read excerpted accounts from some of the 8,000 residents with leprosy on Moloka'i

Accounts preserved by the Kalaupapa National Historical Park describe how residents felt about being sent to live in this remote location and knowing they would never be allowed to leave. In 2012, 20 residents with the disease continued to voluntarily live in the area.

Listen to what it was like living as a medieval leper

This podcast uses paleopathological and anthropological findings to reconstruct what it was like for people diagnosed with leprosy in medieval times on the Eurasian continent. If a town lacked a leprosarium—an isolated leper asylum or colony—or the suspected leper was a foreigner or a Jew, which would make them ineligible for leprosarium admission, they'd be expelled.

In 1865, Hawaii's king authorized forcible removal, quarantining of those with leprosy

King Kamehameha V authorized the removal of anyone with leprosy symptoms and for them to be placed in a medical facility later maintained by the Catholic Church on Moloka'i, Hawaii's fifth largest island. Patients weren't allowed to transfer to other medical facilities until 1969.

Recent research indicates leprosy was present in the Americas before European settlers

New research published in 2025 upended long-held notions that the disease was introduced to the Americas by European colonizers. Evidence of a lesser-known leprosy-causing bacterium was found in ancient human remains that date back 4,000 years.

Up to 225 cases of leprosy in the US are diagnosed each year

Most cases in the US are imported, meaning someone was infected in a country where it was more common. Since symptoms can sometimes take decades to appear, tracing the origin of the disease can be hard.

See examples of leprosy in the Bible—a broad term for skin ailments in ancient times

People afflicted with leprosy in the Bible may have had a range of different skin diseases, rather than what's clinically diagnosed as Hansen's disease (leprosy) today. In the Bible, as in many traditional societies, those with the disease were often considered unclean or sinful.

81% of Florida's leprosy cases occur in central Florida, raising concerns

Researchers noted in 2023 that about one-fifth of new US leprosy cases were reported in the central part of the Sunshine State. What's more, about a third of the new US cases overall appear to have been acquired locally, raising questions about whether the disease is now naturally occurring in parts of the southeastern US.

More than 200,000 people are diagnosed with leprosy annually

The disease still occurs in more than 120 countries. Brazil, India, and Indonesia continue to report more than 10,000 new cases annually.

Leprosy affects the skin, eyes, and upper respiratory tract

Untreated, the disease can lead to permanent nerve damage and the loss of sensation in arms, legs, and other extremities. The exact form of transmission remains unclear, but scientists suspect it is spread via respiratory droplets over a prolonged period. (Warning: Graphic content, including photos of deformities.)

Watch how doctors examine leprosy patients for signs of vision impairment

Clinicians must screen for symptoms of eye and vision damage in leprosy patients, including loss of sensation, reduced blink reflex, and inability to close or keep the eyes closed.

Leprosy bacteria replicate extremely slowly—only once every two weeks

Mycobacterium leprae has a long incubation period and a very slow replication rate, taking roughly 12 to 14 days to make a copy of itself and divide. In contrast, bacteria like E. coli can replicate in about 20 minutes in ideal conditions. Someone can be infected for years without experiencing any symptoms. This also makes the disease difficult to treat. This video describes the knowns—and unknowns—about this infectious bacterium.

About 95% of people are naturally immune to leprosy.

See what regions report new leprosy cases

This graphic shows the burden of leprosy by region for 2023, based on data provided from the World Health Organization, which collates this information. Southeast Asia leads in the number of cases by region. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Nerve axons become damaged by leprosy, so patients may lose feeling in their skin

Infection of the peripheral nerves—nerves outside the brain and spinal cord—is a known complication of leprosy. That damage can cause patients to lose their sense of touch and the ability to feel pain or temperature in affected areas, leading to accidental injury.

Leprosy symptoms may appear 20 years after infection, so contact tracing isn't possible.

People can—and have—contracted leprosy from armadillos

A 2011 study linked multiple human cases to the handling of armadillos or the consumption of their meat. The research couldn't document direct transmission, but did find that the animals and humans shared the same exact strain of the disease.

Grosse Île, the quarantine island of the Port of Quebec

As tens of thousands of Irish emigrated to North America to escape the Great Famine in the mid-19th century, many port cities set up quarantine areas amid an epidemic of cholera. In Quebec City on the St. Lawrence River, one island became a mass graveyard where over 3,000 Irish immigrants died over a decade as they waited in quarantine. Listen to the history here.

Explore what it's like Inside a patient isolation unit.

What was life like as a slave in the US?

Over 2,500 former slaves were interviewed by writers and journalists in the late 1930s as part of the US Federal Writer's Project. The collection recorded images and firsthand verbal accounts of life as a slave, eight of which are highlighted in this article at the Library of Congress. See the humanity in each of these individuals with their firsthand accounts.

Read an excerpt from 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,' the story of the Black woman whose nonconsensually sampled cancerous cells underpin thousands of research papers and several Nobel Prize-winning works.

Leprosy bacteria are sometimes grown on mouse feet for research since the pathogens can't be grown in a petri dish.

Camus contracted tuberculosis as a teenager

There was still little understanding of treatment for the disease at the time; for most people, a tuberculosis diagnosis was a death sentence. The 17-year-old Camus was quarantined in his uncle's house, where he grew into an avid reader. Scholars note that the experience would inform his later work, including his 1947 novel "The Plague."

The peer support movement may date back to 18th century France

At the Bicêtre Hospital, an asylum near Paris, Jean-Baptiste Pussin (who had previously been a patient but later led the hospital administration) tried to hire as many staff as possible from among recovered patients. Chief physician Philippe Pinel found these individuals to be kinder than other staff and "averse from active cruelty" which was common at the time. This approach allowed the facility to move away from shackling patients and other violent methods.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

Explore the components of the linear particle accelerator at Los Alamos

Located at the site of bomb design and development for the Manhattan Project, LANSCE features an injector system for hydrogen ions, a series of tanks with alternating electric fields for proton acceleration, and an isotope production facility that creates radioisotopes for medical treatments.

Leprosy has been detected in British red squirrels

The animals have been infected with both strains of the bacterium that cause leprosy. Researchers have found that squirrels living in different parts of the UK were infected with different species of the disease-causing bacteria. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Prisoners granted compassionate release due to severe illness often stay months—or years—largely because nursing homes are reluctant to take prisoners.

Hear the story of a doctor who decided to flee Cuba with his family in 1963

In this StoryCorps conversation, Gustavo Mestas reflects on leaving the island with his family in 1963 and the difficult transition that followed—from treating patients in Cuba to picking tomatoes and cleaning motels while rebuilding a life in the US.

Read the 1866 story in The Atlantic that put phantom limbs on the map, a fictional story by a Civil War surgeon that was mistaken for being a true account by many readers.

How a worm helped give the southern US its reputation

"The germ of laziness" that blanketed the southern US for centuries with unshakable fatigue, brain fog, and distended bellies paired with emaciated frames was actually a worm. This parasitic worm lives in the gut, where it can stay up to five years, laying up to 10,000 eggs daily. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide continue to suffer from hookworm infections, often obtained by walking barefoot across infected soil.

The most haunted locations in the US

This TimeOut guide presents some of the most notorious places in the United States, profiling the creepy histories of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, the Waverly Hills Sanitorium in Louisville, Kentucky, and the lingering effects of the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts.

60 years after seeing Henrietta Lacks as a patient, her doctor still remembered the unique cervical tumor that gave rise to the 'immortal' cell line now commonly used in biomedical research—it was purple, shiny, and soft—an appearance he said is very different from a typical tumor.

Read a firsthand account of a participant in the first Biosphere 2 mission

The first crew of “Biospherians” spent four months growing their own wheat and awaiting the ripening of tomatoes, onions, and peppers to make their own pizza. They also raised their own livestock, including chickens, pigs, and two goats named Milky Way and Stardust.

In 2011, a mysterious illness spread around LeRoy, New York

A handful of girls were stricken with bizarre twitches, tics, and spasms — all apparently involuntary. Some believed the incident to be conversion disorder, an illness where emotional troubles have physical symptoms.

Hear firsthand stories of prison life from those living it

"Ear Hustle"—produced inside San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (formerly known as San Quentin State Prison)—shares personal and often surprising stories of incarceration and reentry—providing listeners with an unfiltered human perspective on the US justice system.

The Curies were buried in lead-lined coffins to contain their radioactive bodies

Their discoveries of polonium and radium involved ongoing exposure to radioactive materials before shielding technology was developed. Their notebooks, furniture, and other belongings remain radioactive today, requiring researchers to sign a waiver and wear protective clothing to access.

After being diagnosed with lupus, O'Connor moved to her family's Georgia farm

In 1950, O'Connor began feeling ill and returned to Georgia, where she was diagnosed with lupus, the same disease that killed her father when O'Connor was just 15. After the diagnosis, O'Connor and her mother moved to Andalusia, the family farm north of Milledgeville, Georgia.

Readers thought the fictional Civil War vet George Dedlow, a character suffering from phantom limb pain in an 1866 story in The Atlantic, was real—and sent donations and stopped by the hospital to meet him.

Inside the Sarah Lawrence College sex cult scandal

In late 2010, a middle-aged man, freshly released from prison, moved into his daughter's college dorm and created a group that had all the hallmarks of a cult. Over the decade that followed, he extorted millions of dollars from vulnerable young adults through violence, psychological torture, and forced sex work. Authorities credited his arrest to a magazine article published in 2019 detailing victims' allegations.

Wild chimpanzees have been spotted with leprosy lesions

In research published in 2021, scientists reported discovering cases of leprosy in wild chimpanzees from Guinea-Bissau and the Ivory Coast—marking the first time the disease has been found in any nonhuman species in Africa. They confirmed that leprosy was the cause of the deformities by testing the animals' poop for the presence of the disease-causing bacteria.

A French Army surgeon discovered that malaria is a parasitic disease in 1880—but scientists were initially skeptical.

The story of the 1945 Minnesota Starvation Experiment

Amid the severe conditions of World War II, researchers were eager to learn the effects of starvation in a controlled study. This podcast dives into a yearlong study of 36 men at a Minneapolis college who endured a six-month period of semi-starvation, where their caloric intake was halved. Results from the experiment became a landmark study in human starvation.

Arlington National Cemetery was built on land seized from Robert E. Lee's family during the Civil War

Established in 1864 on a plantation once owned by Lee's wife, Arlington now spans 639 acres and is home to more than 400,000 veterans and their eligible dependents. The cemetery conducts as many as 27 funerals every weekday.

Poems and stories inscribed on the walls of a US immigration island

What Ellis Island was to the East Coast, Angel Island was to the West. Just off the coast of San Francisco, this processing center became a detention center for those targeted by exclusionary immigration laws. Click here to read some of the stories left by the detained.

Leprosy doesn't cause fingers or toes to fall off

The nerve damage that results from infection sometimes causes loss of feeling in extremities so injuries like cuts or burns may be missed. In such cases, resulting infections can lead to digit loss. Fingers or toes can also appear to shorten with this disease because nerve damage can sometimes make muscles in fingers and toes so weak that they're reabsorbed by the body.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to a health condition

Gehrig's diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that now bears his name, forced him to retire early. Weeks later, he spoke with gratitude and stated, "For the past two weeks, you have been reading about a bad break. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." Gehrig died at the age of 37, about two years later.

Louisiana has parishes instead of counties

Louisiana is the only US state that uses parishes rather than counties as its primary local government unit. The distinction traces back to the state's French and Spanish Catholic colonial heritage.

Leonard Knight built a folk art landmark in the California badlands

Slab City is an unofficial off-the-grid community on the site of a decommissioned Marine Corps base in the Southern California desert. Knight began constructing his enormous and colorful "Salvation Mountain" in 1984. In 2000, it was designated "a folk art site worthy of preservation and protection."

More than 100,000 scientific publications between 1953 and 2018 reported using HeLa cells—the cancerous cells nonconsensually taken from a Black woman named Henrietta Lacks in 1951.