Medically speaking leprosy and AIDS are worlds apart. One owes many of its symptoms to an overactive immune response whereas the other is a failure of the immune system. Yet during my elective I saw a very important link.
Manoram Christian Hospital was started 40 years ago in central Thailand. Since then it has provided excellent health care for the local people but most especially has sought to reach out to those with leprosy, people with very real physical need but who are cast out by society, as in the time of the New Testament. Just as Jesus cared for the outcast, so the staff at Manorom have extended Jesus' love to those with leprosy. The results are dramatic. Of the 5,000 patients they have treated and continue to treat, 1,000 have come to faith in Christ. Not only have their physical needs been met but even in a Buddhist country their deepest need has been met. Now there are far fewer patients with active leprosy and it is here that the link with AIDS becomes evident. As leprosy becomes less prominent so AIDS is emerging as a significant problem. Just as 40 years ago leprosy left the person an outcast, so today AIDS has similar devastating consequences.
I shall not forget the day I spent at a hospital in Bangkok. We arrived early for the clinic and so went up to the AIDS ward. I was not sure what to expect. It was perhaps a good thing, as I'm not sure I would have chosen to go if I'd have known what I would see. The ward was just a big room with about 24 beds, back to back, housing both men and women. Words cannot describe the suffering. Young men and women barely had the strength to move or care for themselves.
They were without hope, simply waiting for death. Perhaps even worse, many with AIDS know not only physical suffering but also the pain of being rejected by family and friends.
The outpatient clinic heralded even more suffering. One young woman was so ill that she could barely walk. She was covered in sores from head to foot and had severe abdominal pain. She lived alone. She was just one of the 400 people who came to the clinic that day, a clinic that runs every Wednesday. Manorom have now opened their own AIDS ward to provide for the growing need and to continue to show Christ's love to those rejected and broken. A 30-year-old male patient told his story:
'I was always a strong kid, doing all kinds of physical labour and never thinking anything about it. So, when I started to feel weak and tired all the time I knew something was wrong. I went to one hospital in Bangkok where they took some blood for examination. They talked among themselves; they didn't really tell me what was wrong, but said I needn't go back to them again. That seemed strange ... then I shopped around at several more hospitals in Bangkok. One of them told me I had AIDS but there wasn't anything to do for it right now.
Only my Mum and Dad knew. I was afraid to tell my friends or my fiancée. I knew she'd dump me on the spot! Then a friend told me about Manorom Christian Hospital, up in the boondocks. After I was well enough to know what was going on, I was amazed at the care I received. The staff actually touched me.'
Manoram Christian Hospital was started 40 years ago in central Thailand. Since then it has provided excellent health care for the local people but most especially has sought to reach out to those with leprosy, people with very real physical need but who are cast out by society, as in the time of the New Testament. Just as Jesus cared for the outcast, so the staff at Manorom have extended Jesus' love to those with leprosy. The results are dramatic. Of the 5,000 patients they have treated and continue to treat, 1,000 have come to faith in Christ. Not only have their physical needs been met but even in a Buddhist country their deepest need has been met. Now there are far fewer patients with active leprosy and it is here that the link with AIDS becomes evident. As leprosy becomes less prominent so AIDS is emerging as a significant problem. Just as 40 years ago leprosy left the person an outcast, so today AIDS has similar devastating consequences.
I shall not forget the day I spent at a hospital in Bangkok. We arrived early for the clinic and so went up to the AIDS ward. I was not sure what to expect. It was perhaps a good thing, as I'm not sure I would have chosen to go if I'd have known what I would see. The ward was just a big room with about 24 beds, back to back, housing both men and women. Words cannot describe the suffering. Young men and women barely had the strength to move or care for themselves.
They were without hope, simply waiting for death. Perhaps even worse, many with AIDS know not only physical suffering but also the pain of being rejected by family and friends.
The outpatient clinic heralded even more suffering. One young woman was so ill that she could barely walk. She was covered in sores from head to foot and had severe abdominal pain. She lived alone. She was just one of the 400 people who came to the clinic that day, a clinic that runs every Wednesday. Manorom have now opened their own AIDS ward to provide for the growing need and to continue to show Christ's love to those rejected and broken. A 30-year-old male patient told his story:
'I was always a strong kid, doing all kinds of physical labour and never thinking anything about it. So, when I started to feel weak and tired all the time I knew something was wrong. I went to one hospital in Bangkok where they took some blood for examination. They talked among themselves; they didn't really tell me what was wrong, but said I needn't go back to them again. That seemed strange ... then I shopped around at several more hospitals in Bangkok. One of them told me I had AIDS but there wasn't anything to do for it right now.
Only my Mum and Dad knew. I was afraid to tell my friends or my fiancée. I knew she'd dump me on the spot! Then a friend told me about Manorom Christian Hospital, up in the boondocks. After I was well enough to know what was going on, I was amazed at the care I received. The staff actually touched me.'
