Mentioned in Han-era medical texts as 疠 lì or 大风 dàfēng, the disease drove the establishment of segregated 麻风村 (leper villages) across 20th-century China. Multidrug therapy from the 1980s onward turned it into a curable condition.
usage
麻风 is the disease itself; 麻风病 (with 病 'disease') is the more frequent everyday form. Don't confuse with 麻疯 (occasional misspelling) — 风 here is the historical 'wind' theory of pathogenesis.
