India is the world’s leprosy hotspot. Can it get rid of this Biblical disease?

India has 60% of all leprosy cases in the world but has promised to eradicate this disease by 2027. Experts say actions speak louder than words

Tanu Bai got leprosy at 20 years old. She would burn her hands but couldn’t feel it. Sometimes, her arms would become horribly inflamed; other times she would become feverish, shivering uncontrollably. There were no parents to take care of her; her mom and dad had died when she was 10. Her brother too.

When I asked her how she developed leprosy, she says simply, “I just got it,” looking at me as if I asked a stupid question. To Tanu Bai, leprosy was not infectious; instead, God had willed her to have this condition — and that was that.

Leprosy is one of the most ancient stigmatized diseases in the world…