Aaron Feuer
1/26/98
Disease and Discrimination
Web page reviews
Date accessed 1/25/99

    In the last few years, the internet has become a beacon for people in need of information related to just about anything, even diseases that strike areas and people who probably have never had any contact with the internet, or even a computer. There are numerous sites which deal with leprosy, and I have chosen to review two, one from the United Kingdom, and one from the United States of America.
    The first site is the home page of LEPRA, the British Leprosy Relief Association, http://www.lepra.org.uk/home.html. This site is broken up into eight main divisions. First is the history of the Association and what they do. LEPRA was formed in 1924 and they aim to cure leprosy through education and donation. The second section describes the disease itself. Though the site goes into some detail of the scientific nature of the infection, it mainly describes the symptoms. In this section, they offer a very helpful distribution map showing where the hot spots are in the world right now. This section describes who and how many suffer from the disease, as well as how the disease can be treated. Mainly describing MDT. This section also briefly touches on the future of the disease, and makes a few trend predictions. The next section is a list of people who can be contacted inside LEPRA for more information, as well as to make donations. There is an online form which is very simple. An email directory is provided with all the email addresses of LEPRA‚s employees. The fourth section describes the different projects that LEPRA is working on now and will be working on in the near future, as well as research that is being conducted in different parts of the world. The next section is a list of current news and events relating to leprosy and LEPRA, including upcoming fundraising events. The sixth section I found to be very interesting . IT is a special page for younger readers who are in the middle school level which helps to explain the disease in terms that a younger reader would understand. There is a FAQ answering many questions and dispelling many myths about the disease. The next section are current employment opportunities at LEPRA, and the eighth section is a leprosy links page.
    This web page is intended for a very wide audience, even younger people who otherwise would not understand the disease. It is obviously aimed at the UK, as there are no contacts anywhere else, but then again, it is a UK organization.
    I found this page to be very user friendly. It loaded quickly, and there was no java or frames to contend with, which in my opinion is beneficial as it cuts down on the loading time significantly.
    The information provided was very reliable and to the point. The fact that they only touched on the biological aspect of the disease helps their cause as they reach a larger audience.
    The author‚s agenda was mainly to inform people about leprosy, in hopes that people reading would contribute, either by donating, or becoming active with LEPRA. It was nice however, to see that they did not ask for donations every other sentence.
    The site did not, however, give a "last updated" date, or the author of the page, but they did provide an email address, lepra@lepra.org.uk, as well as phone numbers and a fax number.
 
    The other page reviewed was the American Leprosy Missions‚ home page at http://www.leprosy.org/. This site was broken up into four main sections. The first was a before and after picture of a leprosy patient. The first picture showed his physical deformities, and the second showed the results of proper treatment. Right off the bat this site is trying to shock. The second section describes the effects of leprosy, paying careful attention to the more grisly ones. This section has a body map where you can click on a section to see a deformity to that part of the body. The third section are four case histories of people with leprosy, and the fifth section describes the ALM. This section describes their goals, their projects, links for more leprosy information, a donation form, and job opportunities with ALM, both short term, and long term.
    This site is missing any kind of scientific information relating to the disease or the cure. It continually tries to persuade people to make donations. The main intention of the site is to shock people into donating money or time to cure leprosy. The site is geared towards a religious (Christian) audience, making many references to Jesus Christ and the Bible.
    The site was very user friendly, and it was easily navigable. The information provided was fairly accurate, though it seems they avoided the biological aspect of the disease altogether. The author‚s agenda was simply to make people feel pity, and have them donate their money and maybe their time to ALM.
    Like the other site, there was no update information, nor was there any page author listed.
    These two pages were similar in nature, but the ALM page was aimed at an extremely narrowed audience. Either way, it must be noted that having these pages and other similar pages is a step in the right direction. There are many popular misconceptions about leprosy and through a mass medium such as the internet, more people can be educated about the disease, and education is a crucial first step.
 

 Pages Consulted

American Leprosy Missions. (1998). Electronic sources: APA style of citation [Online]. Available: http://www.leprosy.org/ [1998, Sep. 25]

The British Leprosy Relief Association. (1998). Electronic sources: APA style of citation [Online]. Available: http://www.lepra.org.uk/home.html [1998, Sep. 25]