Ministry of Health and Welfare Sorokdo National Hospital Hansen’s Disease Museum

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The government announced the revised 「Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act」 (Act No. 1274) on February 9, 1963 in accordance with the decision made by the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction. The revised Act brought significant legal changes to history of Korean Hansen’s disease as it concerned many items related to the disease. Major changes include:

• 「Article 29 (Patients Subject to Inpatient Treatment) ① A group 1 infectious disease patient and a Hansen’s disease patient shall receive inpatient treatment at an infectious disease control institution, an isolation ward, an isolation facility, or a place designated by a Mayor or the Head of a Si/Eup/Myeon. ② A patient with infectious disease who are not subject to inpatient treatment stipulated in paragraph ① may undergo treatment at his/her home.」 was revised as
• 「Article 29 (Patients Subject to Quarantine) ① A group 1 infectious disease patient shall receive inpatient treatment at an infectious disease control institution, an isolation ward, an isolation facility, or a place designated by the Mayor of Seoul Metropolitan City, the Mayor of Busan, or the head of a Si/Eup/Myeon. ② A group 3 infectious disease patient, who was designated in accordance with the decree of the competent Ministry, shall receive inpatient treatment. ③ A patient with infectious disease who are not subject to inpatient treatment stipulated in paragraphs ① and ② may undergo treatment at his/her home.」 Also, ‘the corpse of a Hansen’s disease patient shall be cremated’ was deleted from Article 35 (Cremation of Patient’s Corpse).

The items became irrelevant as the meaning of forced quarantine changed with the development of campaigns to construct settlement village for Hansen’s disease patients after liberation and thus, have been adapted to existing reality, enabling Hansen’s disease patients, who belong to the group 3 chronic infectious disease category, to receive treatment at their home.

Thanks to the revision, Hansen’s disease patients, who had no choice but to be quarantined in Sorokdo, a place of social contempt and alienation, or private leprosariums, were set free from forced segregation.

On September 3, 1963, a revised office organization applied to leprosariums was announced. There were four divisions under the Director: General affairs division (general affairs, accounting, management), medical service division (medical service, pharmacy, examination room), rehabilitation division (rehabilitation, welfare, supervision), and nursery division (nursing). Director and other staff were assigned with corresponding public officer titles and maximum number of employees was adjusted to 95.

After the 「 Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act 」 was revised, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, as a follow up measure, held a Hansen’s disease management council on September 16, 1964 to get advice about effective ways to manage Hansen’s disease and discussed the followings seven items:

1. Unifying the method of writing clinical charts
2. Unifying the method of interpreting bacteria test results
3. Regular treatment
4. Method of detecting patients
5. Hygiene education and educating generla public about Hansen’s disease
6. Establishment of Hansen’s Disease Day
7. Family planning of patients

Major agenda items in the discussion by directors and chief doctors of five national hospitals and directors of antileprosy mobile unit included:

• Unifying the method of writing clinical charts: The form and method of writing should be unified so that doctors can thoroughly identify conditions of individual patients for proper treatment.
• Isolation of patients’ children: Children who are staying in national hospitals with their parents, who are Hansen’s disease patients, should be isolated immediately. The best way is to accommodate them in independent public or private nurseries. If this is not possible, the director of the hospital should find ways to send the children back to their hometown or relatives. This job should be completed by end-1964.
• Setting up a standard for treatment: Since each hospital have a different standard for treatment, a single standard should be set up to guarantee continuity of treatment.
• Close inspections of family plans: Directions were made several times but there are still much to be done. The following should be carried out completely.
  • Encourage male patients, who can impregnate his partner, to have vasectomy to fulfill family plan requirements.
  • Always keep track of patients in childbearing age and control birth as much as possible.
• Hospitalization and discharge of patients: Arbitrary hospitalization and discharge of patient by hospitals are not allowed in principle. However, positive patients who are highly infectious are exceptions. Still, home-care is recommended within the limit of possibility. Discharge of fully recovered patients should be done continuously. Negative patients should always be identified and kept track of so that they can be sent to their hometown or a relevant place for rehabilitation to the society and bedspace can be secured to accept new patients.
• Efforts to educate the public about Hansen’s disease: It is difficult to pursue relevant projects due to the lack of general public's understanding about Hansen's disease. Therefore, directors of national hospitals and heads of mobile clinics should pay a leading role in correcting people's misunderstanding. Efforts to change perception should be centered on neighborhood residents of the settlements of Hansen's disease patient in your respective district. In doing this, well-organized plans should be set up to effectively carry out relevant education on a regular basis.
• Report of Project Development: Each hospital and mobile clinic should thoroughly report how the projects are progressing.

Later, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs directed hospitals to follow the above guideline. Hospitals continued on with the policies that meet the guideline and selected unifying the method of writing clinical charts, hospitalization and discharge of patients, and efforts to educate the public about Hansen’s disease as the projects that should be worked on going forward.

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