Talk:Leprosy

Why do we have the discussion of an ancient and well-known disease linked here, to a page about a modern disease that may or may not be the same, and that most people haven't heard of? It is not as though "leper" is to most people a derogatory term, the fact being that most of us have never seen anyone afflicted with leprosy; so is there really some benefit to replacing the well-known term by an obscure, less descriptive one tied to a man's name? -Vivacissamamente

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Much of this text is taken from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/hansens_t.htm

This is a US Federal Govt. department website, with no apparent copyright notice, and therefore should be in the public domain. The Anome

How do you reach that conclusion, out of interest? Is there some statement somewhere that US federal government websites are public domain unless specified otherwise? - Khendon 16:06 Oct 4, 2002 (UTC)

Under US Copyright Law the Federal government cannot directly copyright material. This is discussed in Wikipedia talk. -- User:Roadrunner

See 17 USC section 105 - "Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government...." However, as with most general rules there are a multitude of exceptions.

bob

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I did a once-over, a little more info and formatting. This page is badly US-centric at present (the medical information is valid worldwide, but more on incidence elsewhere in the world should be added).

Also, if we're redirecting leprosy here, some historical and cultural information should be added. Alternatively, that could go on a separate page, something like "History of leprosy", with cross-references between the two. Vicki Rosenzweig, Sunday, June 23, 2002

Yes, 'n' I think it's rather odd to call Hansen the "discoverer" of something that had been known since antiquity. Maybe the describer, or the discoverer of the infectious agent, or what have you? - Montréalais

Moreover, my understanding is that it is by no means certain that all of the skin conditions mentioned, say, in Leviticus were the result of catching Hansen's disease. IHCOYC

Requested move

Hansen's disease → Leprosy. The article begins "Hansen's disease, commonly known as leprosy..." Policy says use common name. Jonathunder 05:46, 2005 Apr 7 (UTC)

• I would add in support of this that most of "what links here" points to leprosy. And as others have noted in the discussion above, most references to the disease, not only in history but currently, call it leprosy. Jonathunder 05:54, 2005 Apr 7 (UTC)
• Support. Not only is it the most common name in lay publishing, but also in medical texts as well. I didn't even come across the term "Hansen's disease" until my second year of medical school, and it was presented as an older term to know in case someone mentioned it by that name. — Knowledge Seeker দ 06:33, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Support. What links here is often a good guide. -- Solipsist 07:01, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Support. Philip Baird Shearer 16:08, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Discussion

• We don't need to vote here. "What links here" shows that editors have already voted, by a ratio of more than 100 to 1. Tannin 11:24, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)