Tours to Ex-Leper Colony in Hawaii Are Back in Business

A former leprosy settlement in a remote part of Hawaii will reopen this month for the first time since the pandemic, when it closed to shield its few remaining patients, all of whom are over 80. Tours and religious pilgrimages draw visitors to Kalaupapa, an isolated peninsula on the island of Molokai cut off by 2,000-foot cliffs. It traditionally has only been reachable via boat, small plane, mule, or an hourslong hike, per the AP. Right now, travel to the area is only allowed by plane, Kalaupapa National Historical Park said in a statement.

• Hawaii banished leprosy patients to Kalaupapa for more than a century, starting in 1866 during Hawaiian Kingdom rule. The exile policy was only lifted in 1969. More than 8,000 people died there, most of them Native Hawaiian.

• St. Damien, a Catholic priest from Belgium who cared for patients in the late 19th century and was canonized in 2009, also died there after contracting the disease. Damien's devotion to the ailing has inspired people worldwide, as has the work of St. Marianne Cope, a German-born nun who cared for the ill for decades before she died of natural causes on Kalaupapa in 1918. The church canonized her in 2012.
• Today, the peninsula is governed by the state's Department of Health, while the National Park Service operates the historical park. Patients are free to leave the settlement, but many have chosen to stay because it has become their home. Six patients, all cured, live there now, ranging in age from 84 to 101.
• Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, is spread by direct person-to-person contact, although it's not easily transmitted. It can cause skin lesions, mangle fingers and toes, and lead to blindness. It's been curable since the development of sulfone drugs in the 1940s, and people treated with drugs aren't contagious.
• Resuming tours has been complicated by the logistics of the remote location. A van is used to transport visitors, but there's been a wait for it to arrive, as a barge carrying vehicles to the peninsula only arrives once a year.
• The state has promised to keep the settlement open and care for patients until the last one dies. Their privacy means guided tours are the only way visitors may travel to Kalaupapa. All visitors must be at least 16 and have a Department of Health visitor permit, which Seawind Tours & Travel, the tour operator, will facilitate.