Hot tub naked with a Leper

[Taro Toporific]

I have to confess that even as a handicapped person and a former parmedic this story made queasy.

'Onsen' hotel named for discriminatory behavior
The Japan Times: Nov. 19, 2003
KUMAMOTO (Kyodo) An "onsen" hotel in the town of Minami-Oguni, Kumamoto Prefecture, refused to accept guests earlier this month because they were former Hansen's disease patients, it was revealed Tuesday.
....The prefecture repeatedly explained that the disease is not contagious and that the hotel's position was discriminatory, but Ai Ladies Kyuden refused to accept the booking. ...
Hotel manager Atsuko Maeda told a news conference Tuesday that Ai Ladies Kyuden "does not actually know whether the disease is contagious or not.""However, under the current circumstances, in which general social recognition and acceptance (of the disease) is insufficient, we, as a member of the hospitality industry, cannot accept (the former patients) as guests," she said.

[Caustic Saint]

Soup's on!

Seriously though. I think certian conditions preclude some people from ever sharing a public bath. I opted out of an onsen trip this spring because my crappy shoes had shredded my feet as I walked all over Tokyo. (What?!? There's a subway?) I went back to the ryokan, Band-aided them up and knew better than to plunk my ragged dogs into a hot bath that other people would be soaking in.

[AssKissinger]

CDC Link

Transmission: Although the mode of transmission of Hansen's disease remains uncertain, most investigators think that M. leprae is usually spread from person to person in respiratory droplets.
Risk Groups: Close contacts with patients with untreated, active, predominantly multibacillary disease, and persons living in countries with highly endemic disease

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

[Caustic Saint]

I know that Hansen's disease adoring to the Guinness book of records is the least infectious disease.(cant link) But still that does not mean it is 100% non infectious. Otherwise how did the people get it in the first place?

From armadillos. Really.

Leprosy: The Armadillo Connection

What do armadillos and human beings have in common? They can both become infected with leprosy, one of the oldest and most dreaded bacterial diseases known to man.

Humans contract leprosy through a tiny and colorless bacterium that is hard to spot. Armadillos can get the disease in the wild. When blood drawn from armadillos captured in the wild was tested, it showed that the animals had been exposed to the bacterium before capture and had developed antibodies to leprosy. In laboratories, armadillos are given the disease artificially to help find effective vaccines for treatment of this disfiguring illness. Because these bacteria are difficult to grow in a laboratory, vaccines being developed for leprosy currently depend on artificially infected armadillos for their production.

Why an armadillo?

The armadillo has a relatively low body temperature of 32 to 35o C, which the bacillus prefers. Other advantages of the football-sized animal include litters of identical quadruplets (useful for control and experimental studies), a relatively long life span of 10 to 15 years, a tendency not to bite, a tolerance to laboratory procedures, and a large population, numbered at about 30 million, in the United States.

Okay, so it's not entirely the little guys' fault, but it's an odd critter to share a disease with.

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

Different fact from that site Leprosy

affects the

Code: Select all

particularly T cell

+ it attacks

Code: Select all

nerves.

+ Its spread through blood = Resident evils: T cell virus. Is Biohazard and its happening in Japan. We are doomed.

[Caustic Saint]

Different fact from that site Leprosy
affects the

Code: Select all

particularly T cell

+ it attacks

Code: Select all

nerves.

+ Its spread through blood = Resident evils: T cell virus. Is Biohazard and its happening in Japan. We are doomed.

And just in time for the release of Biohazard Outbreak! On your PS2 and online!

[Robato]

But the local tourist inn association said that people have begun calling and faxing to complain about the hotel's attitude, saying they were disappointed to hear the media reports.

Now if only the Japanese people faxed this business about this too
http://www.debito.org/otarulawsuit.html

Im glad that I hate onsens....I would really hate to enjoy them, want to go and then get turned down because I am white or have a cold or something.

[Caustic Saint]

Now if only the Japanese people faxed this business about this too
http://www.debito.org/otarulawsuit.html

I'll see your



and raise you a



Best part about that pic? It's a red light district!

[GargoyleTS]

Whew! For a second there I was getting worried...I thought you were talking about Hanson's Disease

Much scarier than limbs falling off, don'tcha think?

[omae mona]

And the not-so-stunning conclusion: lepers treated better than gaijin? What would Arudou Debito say?

Hotel apologizes for slamming door on Hansen's sufferers
Mainichi Interactive, Nov. 20, 2003

KUMAMOTO -- The head of a hotel in Kumamoto Prefecture that refused accommodation to 22 former patients and workers at a national sanitarium for Hansen's disease sufferers visited the facility Thursday to offer and apology.

.
.
.

The association has received more than 130 complaints from people across the country, with one of them saying, "I'll no longer visit Kurokawa," prompting the association to expel the hotel from its membership.

The Kumamoto Prefectural Government launched an investigation into the decision by the Airediisu Kyuden Kurokawa Onsen Hotel, citing a violation of human rights and a possible violation of hotel industry laws. The Ministry of Justice also reportedly plans to investigate the establishment on suspicion of a human rights violation.

[graline]

i get really dry skin in the winter, if i dont lotion like mad, and in sixth grade my friend actually had me convinced that i had leprocy. for a week. yes, sad i know. but i am the first to admit that i am absent-minded and dont always think things through. ah. makes for some interesting stories tho..=^_^=

[omae mona]

Party at the Leper Colony
By Al Yankovic

I said, "Girl, now don't fall to pieces on me"
But she cried her eyes out - literally
At the party at the leper colony
Oh, there's a party at the leper colony
Hey, hey

Hey now, buddy, don't you give me no lip
Sorry I was using your head for dip
There's a guy in the hot tub, I don't know who
Wait a minute, it looks like Stu

[FG Lurker]

Short article, whole thing included below.

Doctor bias in isolating lepers criticized
UPI, March 2, 2005

Tokyo, Japan, Mar. 2 (UPI) -- A panel in Japan has criticized physicians' conviction that leprosy is incurable.

The panel also blamed the country's health ministry's preoccupation with other matters for prolonging the quarantine of Japan's leprosy patients in postwar years, the Kyodo news service reported.

In its report, totaling some 1,500 pages, the council on investigations concerning issues related to Hansen's disease also blames educators, the courts and the media for playing a part in backing the state policy initiated in 1907 and lasting until as late as 1996.

(Full Story)

[Ketou]

The Ministry of Justice also reportedly plans to investigate the establishment on suspicion of a human rights violation.

Probably whilst defending the government against compensation payments for unlawful detention.

[kamome]

Taiwanese win, S. Koreans get gypped

Former leprosy patients in Taiwan who were forcibly isolated under Japanese colonial rule won a legal victory as a Tokyo court ordered the state to pay compensation, but South Korean plaintiffs lost a similar suit.

This is bizarre. Different legal conclusions from presumably the same set of facts.

[Greji]

The Ministry of Justice also reportedly plans to investigate the establishment on suspicion of a human rights violation.

Probably whilst defending the government against compensation payments for unlawful detention.

The operative words here are "plans to". It is amazing how many "plans to" are publized and then how long it takes them to get around to it! But in all fairness, isn't that politics in most countries?

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri:
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has decided to compensate leprosy patients institutionalized in leprosariums in South Korea and Taiwan who filed suits seeking compensation from the Japanese government for segregation during Japanese colonial rule. The government, which lost a lawsuit filed by Taiwan leprosy patients under legislation to compensate quarantined leprosy patients, likely will lodge an appeal with the Tokyo High Court. Then it likely will seek a court-mediated settlement after deciding upon the amount of compensation to be paid and a method of identifying patients to be compensated. The government will finalize these details by Tuesday, the day it is due to lodge an appeal with the high court. More than 400 leprosy patients from South Korea and Taiwan are thought to be eligible for compensation...more...