Introduction

In the 2012 American animated comedy film The Pirates! Band of Misfits, the pirates attack and board a ship. To their horror, they are confronted with leprosy sufferers. One of the sufferers pulls off his arm and the pirates, aghast, beat a hasty retreat. Of course, this scene was not meant as a serious depiction of leprosy or Hansen’s disease, as it is called today. However, patients who had formerly had Hansen’s disease complained and the filmmakers hastily changed the leprosy ship into a plague ship. ...