Cured lepers still live in "colonies" in China

PANYU, China, Oct 3 (Reuters) The old men hunched over a board game looked like any other pensioners playing chess, until they lifted their heads to welcome medical staff approaching their table.

Scarred by leprosy, some of the men have collapsed noses and others have missing fingers, easily visible as they held up their hands to greet their doctors.

All of the inhabitants at the Panyu leprosy village in southern China have recovered from the potentially debilitating skin disease and are no longer infectious.

But many are badly disfigured and blind and are utterly incapable of rebuilding their lives after being forcibly institutionalised for decades, far away from their families.

Panyu is one of hundreds of ''leprosy villages'' in China, a legacy from the 1950s when very little was known about leprosy, or Hansen's disease.

Mistaken as a very infectious or even incurable disease, those diagnosed with leprosy were exiled to remote villages and forgotten.

Ou Feng was diagnosed with leprosy at the age of 18 and sent to live on Panyu, a tiny island in southern Guangdong province.

Now 78, she is excited to greet visitors, grasping their extended hands and holding them for a long time.

''We have lunch ready for you. Please eat now, we are so happy when you come,'' said Ou.

Until recently leprosy sufferers were shunned due to an incorrect belief their illness was highly infectious. Lepers were turned into outcasts and often sequestered in ''leper colonies''.

MORE REUTERS BDP RK0928