As a child growing up in a village in India, I have seen people begging outside temples who only had stubs of hands and feet, caused by the enervating disease leprosy. India declared prematurely that it had eliminated leprosy in 2005, but the nation has documented the return of this disfiguring infectious disease in early 2009. WHO states that 208 619 new leprosy cases were registered globally in 2018, even though the prevalence rate is less than one in 10 000 people around the world. According to WHO, about 60% of the total global new cases of leprosy in 2015 were from India. The main reasons for the comeback of the disease are low awareness about the disease, as well as stigma and discrimination of people suffering from leprosy at a societal level.

中文翻译：

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从赛艇运动到消除麻风的热爱

小时候在印度的一个村庄长大，我见过人们在庙宇外乞讨，这些庙宇是由麻风病引发的，只手脚短短。印度过早宣布其已于2005年消灭了麻风病，但该国已在2009年初记录了这种毁容性传染病的归还。世界卫生组织指出，2018年全球登记了208619例新的麻风病病例，尽管发病率不到一在世界各地的1万人中。根据世界卫生组织的数据，2015年全球麻风新病例总数中约有60％来自印度。这种疾病卷土重来的主要原因是人们对这种疾病的认识不高，以及在社会层面上对患有麻风病的人的污名和歧视。