The library in the Instituto de Higiene e Medecina Tropical (Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) in Lisbon holds material relating to leprosy and its treatment, particularly with regard to former Portuguese colonies. Although no unpublished primary material has been located yet with regard to leprosy, there are published reports and rare bibliographies. These include:-
“Relatório da Missão de Combate a Lepra na Provincia Ultramarina da Guiné” [Report of the Mission Against Leprosy in the Overseas Province of Guinea], by A. Salazar Leite, J V Bastos da Luz and J Pinto Nogueira, Lisbon, 1952, gathers information on leprosy as part of the project to combat its effects in the colony. The focus was on Guinea because its indigenous population was considered most in need of rapid and efficient action against leprosy. The report studies the scale of the problem and outlines local conditions that will help plans to fight the disease. The study is of a general nature, and contains original photographs of leprosy cases, treatment centres and leprosy census cards/sheets. It identifies different types of leprosy found in Guinea and contains maps of areas where research was carried out, the concentration of cases and statistical tables.
In Anais do Instituto de Medecina Tropical, vol 15, no.1 (March 1958), there are two reports of interest. The first, “Estudo de alguns casos de Lepra na Provincia de Timor”, was written by researchers from the Institute, J Fraga de Azevedo, A Francisco Gandara and A Pedroso Ferreira, who were sent to Timor between 21 November 1955 and 31 March 1956 in order to study leprosy cases. Maps of where the work was carried out and statistical tables are included. The second report, “Relatorio da Missão de Prospecção a lepra em Angola”, by A Salazar Leite, Luis Ré F da Cruz Sobral, Armindo Pinto and Armando Santos, details a mission to Angola and includes photographs, maps and statistical tables. The aim of the mission was to create an extensive census of the districts of Bic-Cuango-Cubango and Huila.
Also in Anais do Instituto de Medecina Tropical, supplement two from November 1945, there is a bibliography of leprosy studies from around the world and an outline of leprosy treatment in Goa. In Vol. 16, nos. 1-4, January-December 1959, Augusto Salazar Leite published his inaugural lecture at the Institute, which includes an overview of the study of leprosy around the world, and details on the Portuguese combating leprosy successfully in Mozambique and Guinea.
Aurelio da Fonseca’s Bibliografia dermatologica Portuguesa, incluindo Venereologia, Micrologia e Leprologia (Porto, 1962) includes obscure and hard to find entries on leprosy. There is also a copy of Luiza Keffer’s Indice Bibliografico de Lepra (São Paulo, 1944), three volumes, a bibliographical guide to thousands of entries of published works on leprosy in the world, covering the period 1500-1943; and the third supplement to Keffer’s bibliography, covering the years 1926-1956, with particular focus on Brazil.
Entry made 14 November 2003