Nigeria’s leprosy centres crumble as government abandons patients to charity

Uzuakoli Leprosy Colony in Abia State has not received government funding since 2009, surviving instead on donations from churches and foreign NGOs while over 3,500 Nigerians are diagnosed with leprosy annually. The centre, established by Methodist missionaries in 1931 and once the foremost leprology facility in Africa, now stands as a monument to institutional collapse that epidemiologists say puts an entire generation at risk.