European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 28, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The a Miracle 5 at Carvise the first effective treatment for Hansen a disease a leprosy a was discovered at Carville Louisiana of Betty Martin above has been a patient at the Hansen disease Center since 1937. Oscar Demster left is one of 48 remaining patients. A woman below with Hansen s disease recovers from treatment in Addis Ababa Ethiopia. By Janet Mcconnaughey the associated press r our men hobbled on Board the Coal Barge i a a that carried the first seven leprosy patients to a new Hospital upriver from new Orleans two women and a Man could t walk. They a. J were carried. I they went by Coal Barge because no ? Carriage Driver or conventional boat Captain in now Orleans would take them. No landlord would let them stay Quot the lepers were made As comfortable As possible Quot. Wrote a reporter who made the Albright trip in greater a Comfort aboard the tug Ella Andrews. Quot Many mattresses were placed on the deck and Pillow s and bed clothing Given the patients Quot. It was nov. 30, 1b94, the seven patients had been rescued from what was called or. Beard s pest House a a filthy place with cracked Walls no heat a stinking Kitchen rubbish heaped around the Yard. It was a Quot House of disease lost Hope and death Quot wrote a reporter for the daily Picayune. Their new Refuge in Carville la., was a slave Cabin on an abandoned Plantation bought under the pretext of starting an Ostrich farm. The reporter spent two Long paragraphs describing the uninhabitable Plantation House 1 closing with Quot the Cabins Are comfortable and need no other  hoards had been bought to repair the Cabins he said and the committee that had set up the Hospital expected to hire two nurses soon. Blame the Bible a rather its translators a Tor stigmatizing victims of leprosy. From Leviticus Quot the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean. And the Leper in whom the plague is his clothes shall be rent and his head Bare and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip and shall cry unclean . The problem is that the men who translated the Bible into English used Quot leprosy Quot to translate Quot Tsara ath Quot a a word used to describe a multitude of symptoms none of which Are those of Hansen s disease. Quot Tsara ath Quot is used to describe even rot in clothing and buildings. Modern translations use Quot malignant skin disease Quot or Quot virulent skin  a today just about every belief held about the disease 3a Aoh the fir cd All feb it Cher in v. 6 yet the Al a a Ai h of b p b d i f 16 the stars and stripes tuesday