Phung Quan is a famous Vietnamese writer / poet. In 1945, he joined the National Guard, under the role of a reconnaissance soldier of the 101st Regiment (formerly Regiment Tran Cao Van). It was his early years of joining the resistance war that helped Phung Quan with valuable documents to help him write a work of a fierce childhood that was both corrupt and real. The fierce childhood consists of eight parts recording the hard fighting years of the children named Mung, Quynh Poem, Gathering, Scarred, Draped, Snake-skinned, Bay of Rattles, Veil … in the Youth Team. reconnaissance of the Tran Cao Van regiment in Hue in the early years of the war against the French. In the work Intense Childhood, each character is a story, a meaning that the author wants to convey. That is Cong congratulate the desire “to follow the brothers to fight the West for their country to be independent, so that after the nuns, if I have a disease that is worse than asthma, I will also be healed by the government”; As the brave Gathering, no one has the same intellect … According to literary critics, the years of fire and bombs lost, traumatic but heroic, are familiar topics in Vietnamese literature. Phung Quan also chose the arduous resistance war days as the main background. However, he chose a different path, not depicting seasoned soldiers, his main characters as young warriors. Childhood is not the days of innocent play, the childhood of Mung, Lom, and Quynh … are days of hard fighting and willingness to sacrifice for the Fatherland. This is the point of success and the thrill of a fierce Childhood. Commenting on the work, critic Nguyen Khac Vien commented: “The book is nearly 800 pages thick that readers never want to stop, attracted because of the innocent, cunning, heroic characters, because things are sometimes thrilling, sometimes funny, sometimes they cause tears … “. Thanks to the work’s unimaginable success, as soon as it was completed, Phung Quan’s Intense Childhood was published and received the Children’s Literature Award from the Vietnam Writers Association. Two years later, the work was made into a movie. Intense Childhood is director Nguyen Vinh Son’s debut film, produced in 1989. The film is called childhood but it is for both adults and children. The film won many major film awards such as the 1990 Silver Lotus Award, Best Director Award and Best Actor Award at the 1990 Film Festival. Invite readers to watch the video: Missing a teacher. Source: VTV TSTC.

This article’s Professor and Doctor of Dermatology Duong Hy Xuyen (China) talk about the history of leprosy and the miracles that humans have fought to overcome this evil disease.

When you hear the word “leprosy”, what comes to mind first?

“Phong Village” is forgotten

Without a doubt, most people have this idea first in mind.

This is a somewhat frightening and remote topic, this bizarre disease has been too distant for us in the 21st century, far enough away to be forgotten.

Fifty years ago, hundreds of thousands of shunned leprosy people were still living in China, now it is hard to see them. The miserable patients are inherently seen as symbols of sin: leprosy and death are equated.

Leprosy is a chronic bacterial illness that can be written as leprosy, but it has nothing to do with madness. Perhaps to avoid such misunderstandings, this disease is often referred to as “leprosy”.

But everyone’s association with it is not only madness, but also represents bright red eyes, short fingers, festering wounds, amputated feet, distorted appearance and even death. miserable.

For thousands of years, leprosy has been considered an evil disease, even a symbol of evil, and under the tragic fate of leprosy patients, they continue to be tortured both physically and mentally, This is beyond our imagination.

In the old era, when medical technology was limited, medical equipment was scarce, leprosy was basically determined to be incurable since it had regionally contagious properties, the only way to Control of fluid growth is isolating the patient.

So, on the mountain, on an isolated island, a group of leprosy villages were built so that the sick lived there. There is no specific medicine or vaccine, and untreated self-resisting patients will continue to develop ulcers and disfigurement until they become paralyzed or even die.

Over time, people misunderstood, dispelled, and feared it, and the “scary” Phong was now a trademark of terror.

The end of the leprosy era

The leprosy history is long, stretching for 1400 years, like an endless nightmare.

It was not until 1874 that the Norwegian physician Hansen (GerhardH.A.Hansen) broke the darkness that he discovered the culprit – the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae.

Symptoms caused by Mycobacterium leprosy bacteria are manifested in the skin, peripheral nerves, mucosa of the upper respiratory tract and eyes, if not treated promptly can lead to blindness or deformity, disability and other consequences.

In other words, once leprosy is found, the disability rate will be very high. However, if the disability is detected early and treated promptly, the disability can be cured.

In current medical conditions, leprosy is already an easy-to-diagnose and treatable disease, currently in clinical use mainly a combination of many drugs and chemotherapy treatments, which can cure leprosy. Within 6-24 months, the contagiousness of the disease may disappear after a week of taking the drug.

Usually, if the patient unfortunately gets the disease, the patient does not need to have negative psychology and bewildered when treating this disease, on the one hand it will not be inherited, on the other hand, the survival rate of bacteria in vitro is low.

Generally, they can be destroyed by disinfection, most people have natural immunity (according to survey statistics with 90% or more), extremely low incidence, when infected. Nor does it need isolation, just treatment.

Darkness has long passed, the era when leprosy is “incurable disease” has been shortened by history. At present, there are basically few new cases, there is no so-called “leprosy village”, only more than 3,000 elderly people in community rehabilitation villages have survived the disease, but have also incapable of working, still facing sequelae.

Leprosy is not terrible

Although leprosy is rare, but because it is very similar to the symptoms of other diseases, it is possible to misdiagnose or omit the disease, so the prevention and treatment cannot be relaxed.

On the other hand, leprosy is a disease with a dark history. Even modern people will still have a lack of sympathy towards patients with fear of leprosy, which has become the biggest obstacle to leprosy prevention today.

So sometimes, it is not the terminal illness, but the hearts of people. Of course, society is not without action.

The last Sunday of January every year is “World leprosy Day”, many countries will organize many activities on this day to mobilize social forces to help leprosy patients overcome difficulties in their life. live and work to eliminate prejudice and discrimination.

There are also many volunteers entering the rehabilitation village, sharing, chatting, even eating, living together, giving care, warm care and making their best contributions. can.

The original purpose of writing this article was to hope everyone to have a correct understanding of leprosy, not to be bound by inherent impressions of the past. Leprosy is not as formidable and frightening as we can imagine. It can be seen from a scientific perspective, it will reduce the superficial evaluation and alienate the patient.

• According to The Paper