[A Study on the Entering and Out-going Trends at Japan’s National Hansen’s Disease Sanatoriums].

A Hansen’s disease (HD) policy began in Japan with the enactment of the No. 11 Act on Leprosy (1907 law No. 11), which was the first leprosy prevention law in Japan in 1907. Results of the law included the enforcement of regulations of the stated law and the establishment of Prefectural Allied (National) HD Sanatoriums in 1909. This policy continued until the “leprosy prevention law” abolition in 1996, and about 35,000 people were placed in isolation; however, its entering and out-going trends are not clear yet. The purpose of this research is to clarify the actual condition of the Japanese HD policy. We added up the number of individuals entering and leaving the sanatorium from 1909 to 2010. This information was collected from annual reports and the internal material from each national sanatorium. In the results, the number of general residents (new, re-entering, transferring from other sanatoriums) and the number of general out-going persons (transferring to another sanatorium, formal discharge, informal discharge including escape and wrong diagnosis, and others) were all totaled as the running number during the 102 year span, in addition to being added to the deaths. The results show that the number of general residents was 56,575 people and the number of general out-going persons was 54,047 people (death: 25,200 people; change of sanatorium: 4,350 people; formal discharge: 7,124 people; informal discharge including escape: 12,378 people; wrong diagnosis: 310 people; others: 4,685 people). Based on the details of each leprosy prevention law, the results for the first “1907 law No. 11” show that the number of general residents was 12,673 people and the number of general out-going persons was 9,070 people. The “1931 leprosy prevention law” results show that the number of general residents was 31,232 people and the number of general out-going persons was 23,354 people. The “1953 leprosy prevention law” results show that the number of general inmates was 12,098 people and the number of general out-going persons was 18,159 people. The “1996 law about repeal of leprosy prevention law” results show that the number of general residents was 572 people and the number of general out-going persons was 3,464 people. We can clarify the number of general residents and the number of general out-going persons in the National HD Sanatoriums in Japan.