Question & AnswerQ&A (Republic Act No. 4073)
The main purpose is to liberalize the treatment of leprosy by amending and repealing certain restrictive provisions in the Revised Administrative Code to prevent automatic segregation of persons afflicted with leprosy except when institutional treatment is medically necessary.
A person afflicted with leprosy can only be confined in a leprosarium when certified by the Secretary of Health or an authorized representative that the stage of the disease requires institutional treatment.
The law states that persons afflicted with leprosy who do not require institutional treatment shall be treated in any government skin clinic, rural health unit, or by a duly licensed physician.
The Secretary of Health or his authorized representatives have the authority to certify that a leprosy patient needs institutional treatment.
The patient shall be sent forthwith to a government-operated sanitarium and be treated therein until the Secretary of Health or authorized representative determines institutional treatment is no longer necessary.
Sections one thousand fifty-eight (1058) and one thousand fifty-nine (1059) of the Revised Administrative Code, as amended, are further amended by this act.
Sections one thousand sixty (1060) to one thousand seventy-one (1071), inclusive, are repealed by this act.
The repeal removes previously existing provisions that may have mandated segregation or other outdated practices for persons afflicted with leprosy, thereby modernizing and liberalizing the treatment approach.
This Act took effect upon its approval on June 18, 1964.
It protects them from being forcibly segregated or confined in a leprosarium unless medically certified as necessary, thereby promoting their rights to treatment outside institutional confinement unless required.