Sanatorio San Francisco de Borja
The Sanatorio San Francisco de Borja is one of the last sanatoriums in Europe that is exclusively responsible for leprosy patients and is located in Fontilles , a place in the Marina Alta region , which belongs to the Spanish province of Alicante , in the mountainous hinterland of the Costa Blanca at an altitude of 1000 m. It is the last of the original four leprosy clinics in Spain .
The clinic has 35 buildings on around 700,000 m². The sanatorium originally had space for 400 patients. In 2016 there were only 29 lepers left on the clinic premises, in February 2006 there were still 62 patients. Many of the old buildings are dilapidated or derelict.
The patients are medically cared for by head physician José Ramón G. Echevarria and cared for by Franciscan Sisters . A Franciscan priest is responsible for religious support.
Most of the patients still living in the sanatorium complex have lost their original social connections. This made San Francisco de Borja their new home. 75 percent of the costs for the treatment and care of the patients come from donations. The remaining 25 percent come from the Valencia region .
Even if leprosy has become a very rare disease in Europe these days - there were no new diseases in Europe from 2009 to 2014 - there were 50 newly registered diseases in 2018. Of these, 7 were discovered in Spain and 5 of the 7 had brought leprosy with them from other countries. A number of outpatients are also cared for.
In 2006, the patients were between 35 and 80 years old, with a mean age of 71 years. Elderly patients were found with deformed extremities, facial and skin changes and nerve lesions. Today, however, you can only see early findings with impaired sensitivity and depigmentation of the skin, but also erythematous lesions . Organ manifestations or even the classic lion face are a thing of the past.
history
The Sanatorio San Francisco de Borja was created at a time when a terrible leprosy epidemic was raging in Spain. At that time there was hardly any cure for the sick and they were generally avoided because of the incorrectly assumed high risk of infection. As lepers , they had to eke out a life apart from society. Today we know that infection requires years of intensive contact with the sick. People with a well-functioning immune system who adhere to hygienic standards are at low risk of contamination and infection. In this way, carers in leprosy houses are and were mostly spared.
In his book Del vivir (Apuntes de parajes leprosos) from 1904, the Spanish author Gabriel Miró reports on the miserable conditions of the time. He describes how the sick hid in huts and caves because they could no longer show themselves in public. They only ventured out at night to beg for food near the village. Miro portrays these people as monster-like figures with lion faces who, as in the times of the Middle Ages, received something edible from peasants passing along the road out of pity.
But there were also the opposite reactions. Some of the outcasts resisted. In Del Vivir , Miro describes how, in addition to the sick, who lived in reticence, real bands of robbers, rambling lepers and other marginalized groups attacked trade caravans and attacked merchants and government emissaries. An outcast from a rich family at an early age is said to have attacked and robbed entire villages as "El Mascarat" in the Alicante region as a legendary gang leader.
So it was no coincidence that a 79 hectare hospital area was built in Fontilles from 1902 to 1909. Out of fear, the surrounding villages tried to prevent the construction of the sanatorium. When the resistance finally assumed threatening proportions, a fortress-like wall was attached to the site 14 years after it was opened. With a length of 3.5 km and a height of 3 m, this wall sealed off the residents from the environment. She gave security to the sick and gradually the fear of the villagers subsided.
More than 400 patients once lived in the sanatorium. In addition to agricultural trades, there was a gardening shop, a locksmith's and a printing company. Because of its isolation, the complex had its own theater and cinema. You were largely self-sufficient.
With the advent of sulfonamide therapy in the 1940s, there were fewer and fewer cases of acute leprosy in Europe. Since the 1980s, leprosy has generally been considered curable with appropriate medical care. Therefore, the leprosy clinics in Europe were gradually closed. Fontilles was one of the last remaining clinics as a home for lepers.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Pedro Simón: La última leprosería de España. In: El Mundo, Fontilles (Alicante). El Mundo, January 31, 2016, accessed May 23, 2020 (Spanish).
- ↑ Entrevista al Dr. JR Gómez Echevarría, expert in leprosy. January 26, 2011, accessed May 23, 2020 (European Spanish).
- ↑ Global leprosy update, 2018: moving towards a leprosy-free world . In: World Health Organization (Ed.): Weekly epidemiological record . tape 94 , no. 35/36 , August 30, 2019, pp. 389-412 ( who.int [PDF]).
Coordinates: 38 ° 46 ′ 37 ″ N , 0 ° 5 ′ 16 ″ W.