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This is the first street you see when you arrive to Dakia - a leper colony in the highlands of Vietnam.
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One of the nuns that runds the colony.
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There are 150 kids living in Dakia.
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The nun walking trough the facility where the sickest patients live
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This is the TV room where those who have developed the disease to lethal stages are isolated from the rest of the colony.
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The bedroom where one recently diseased patient lived.
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Nglêo are one of the people that still lives in the house where the sickest are isolated. The other rooms are empty, because two men died the week before.
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The bedroom where one recently diseased patient lived.
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Christian symbols is a big part of the decor on the walls of the houses in the colony.
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The nun visiting Nglêo in the isolated part of the colony.
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The church in the center of the colony. They have also build a kindergarden and school for the kids.
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This is Nia, he has lost all of his fingers on one hand and his toes are deformed. Because of the stigma surrounded the disease and a poorly developed Vietnamese healthcare system many people with this disease suffer the same fate as Nia.
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Dakia is run by nuns, here you se one of the together with two other ladies. All there ladies are cured of leprosy.
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This is Glâi one of the ladies in the colony that has had the disease for a while and therefor has stated loosing her toes. Laprosy kills slowly and attack the nervous system, but if you get treatment, like Giâi here, you can get better end even cured.
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The nuns that runs the colony holds daily prayer sessions for some of the 540 people that lives here.
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In Vietnam the disease has a big stigma attached to it, and if one family member is infected the rest get driven out of there homes. Therefor hole families live here, including kids.
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One of the nuns walking to the kitchen room.
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The path down to the cemetery.
Public Story
Dakia leper colony
Credits:
ingrid halvorsen
Updated: 02/10/16
Kon Tum, central Vietnam, early 2015.
This is Dakia leper colony. In this colony there are 177 households, 540 residents, 84 of these are patients diagnosed with the disease leprosy. The illness has a big stigma surrounding it, and therefore; if one family member is infected the hole family gets driven out of their home.
The Dakia colony were built by french catholic nuns between 1938-75. It started out as a little refuge in the woods outside Kon Tum, but is now managed by the Vietnamese government and run by Vietnamese catholic nuns. There are 150 children living here with their families and they have built a school, church and kindergarden. The families living here can rent a place to stay and land to grow crops.
The patients that live here will get treatment for leprosy also called Hansen´s disease. It is possible to get cured, but it depends on how far along the patient is and how long they have lived with it. Leprosy is an infection that damages nerves. The result of this is that limbs and other body-parts can gradually «die» and must be amputated. It is infectious, but later research has found that only longterm contact with patients can lead to disease.
In early 2015 there were just one living patient with the highly deadly, far along leprosy at the colony. The other patients had died the week before. It is still possible to live a long life, if the sickness is treated. The Vietnamese health care system is poorly developed and the mortality rate is still not stabilized.
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