Repercussion of segregation in the lives of children separated by leprosy.

Introduction: Leprosy is a disease that carried the characteristic of incurable and disfiguring for years, causing the social segregation of patients before the family and society.

Objective: To describe the repercussion of segregation in the lives of children separated by leprosy who lived in Oswaldo Cruz School.

Method: This is an exploratory, descriptive study, with a qualitative approach and with the methodological framework Oral History of Life.

Results: The sample consisted of 52 family members of former patients segregated in Hospital São Francisco of Assis Cologne Hospital, registered in the Reintegration Movement of People Affected by Leprosy in RN (MORHAN Potiguar). The network was structured from a zero point and consists of five collaborators. Data were collected through individual interviews, and through an instrument with open questions, which were recorded and transcribed. The texts were submitted to thematic content analysis, emerging four themes: broken ties; stigmatized; primary school; leprosy or Hansen's disease.

Conclusion: It was evidenced that isolation has influenced the lives of the study participants. The historical records lived in the past are still present in the collaborators memory and directly reflected in thinking about leprosy today.