4 - Illness Stigma and Patient Images of Leprosy in Taiwan

This paper explores the illness stigma and patient images related with leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) in Taiwan. While social science literature has studied illness stigma of diseases that have no cure or result in bodily impairments, illness stigma resulting from medical interventions has not been discussed in depth. Although leprosy does cause bodily impairments, a large part of stigma related with leprosy has to do with the ways in which medical interventions take place. In addition, not only the disease, but also the sites for treatment themselves are stigmatized. By following the illness stigma and patient images of leprosy from 1930, when forced segregation started in Taiwan, through to 2000, I show that illness stigma and patient images of leprosy evolved along with the developments in treatments of leprosy. Although the introduction of diamino-diphenyl sulphone and multi-drug treatment in the 1950s and the 1980s made leprosy treatable, many patients were in a uncertain illness status, hence still suffering from the stigma. I also compare Taiwanese patients’ images with those of Malaysian and Korean patients in order to reveal the particularities of the images of Taiwanese patients. This paper contributes to existing literature by illustrating how iatrogenic stigma takes place and evolves.