Dessy Sagita, Jakarta – Anen, a man in his mid-50s, recalls the years 2000 and 2001 as the darkest days of his life. He was battling leprosy, a disease that not only left him disfigured, but ostracized and alienated from his community.

While the disease is not fatal, the stigma that comes along with it altered Anen's life. Long thought to be God's curse upon man, leprosy manifests itself very visibly, beginning with skin lesions and, if left untreated, disfiguring the extremities.

Far from being a divine curse, the symptoms are caused by an immune response known as granuloma, in which cells corral a foreign invader, in this case a bacteria, causing the lesions.

A lack of information about the condition, combined with the stigma, forced Anen into isolation. He said after his family and friends found out about his disease, he was shunned. His relatives avoided him because they were afraid that he might infect them.

"No one would touch my clothes or my toiletries," Anen said during a two-day leprosy education forum in Jakarta.

Fortunately, the medical workers in his village in Subang, West Java, came to his aid, prescribing medication that led to a near-complete recovery after more than a year of treatment.

Kristina Widaningrum, head of the leprosy control program at the Ministry of Health, said the disease was more feared than tuberculosis, which is also airborne and treated with a similar drug therapy, but is much more contagious and dangerous.

"Most people fear it more because leprosy can cause permanent physical disabilities," Kristina said.

Leprosy is caused by the bacteria mycobacterium leprae and mycobacterium lepromatosis, Kristina said. If left untreated, it can cause permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes.

Bucking global trends, Indonesia is still greatly exposed to leprosy, said Khanchit Limpakarnjanarat, a representative of the World Health Organization.

From 2000 on, the Ministry of Health has recorded some 17,000 to 18,000 new cases in Indonesia, Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said at the leprosy forum's opening on Monday.

"The bad news is, the number seems to have stabilized. There are no signs of decreasing, and the prevalence among children is still quite high," she said.

Thayib Armayn, the chairman of the multiagency Leprosy Eradication Alliance, said the illness was still prevalent in Indonesia due to multiple factors, including geographic challenges.

Many people who suffer from the disease live in remote areas with limited access to health facilities. For the same reason, early detection is difficult.

In addition, Endang said stigmas and misconceptions about the disease also kept people from getting treatment, partly out of shame and also because they were convinced that the disease was incurable.

The government has had a program in place since 1990 to provide free leprosy drugs such as rifampicin, clofazimine and diaminodiphenyl Sulfone in most community health clinics (Puskesmas) in the country.

Endang said that more than 375,000 patients had been cured, but that 30,000 had been left with permanent damage.

Indonesia has the third-highest leprosy rate among the disease's 18 major endemic countries around the world, after India and Brazil, the WHO's Khanchit said. It has the highest rate in Southeast Asia.

If the disease is detected early enough, Kristina said the chance for a full recovery without lasting damage was very good. Warning signs include white or reddish spots on the skin, especially accompanied by numbness.