Hawaii Still Has a Leprosy Colony
What a World
The patients remain sequestered at Kalaupapa on the island of Molokai. When they die, the plan is to erect a monument to the 8,000 leprosy patients who once lived there.
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On a picturesque peninsula of one of Hawaii’s smallest islands are the remnants of one of history’s most horrific medical sequesters.
Kalaupapa, on the island of Molokai, is Hawaii’s leprosy colony, where 8,000 people were sent into exile over the course of a century.
Six of these patients still live sequestered, out of the 16 total patients who are still alive. They range in age from 73 to 92.
