The leper colony is, of course, not so much a tourist attraction as a memorial to cultural history and to superstition. From 1865, under King Kamahameha V, lepers and those whom the doctors of the time thought might fall prey to the disease were isolated from the rest of Hawaii. In this way it was hoped that the spread of the disease would be prevented. It is not known how leprosy reached the Hawaiian islands; possibly it came in with Chinese plantation workers. It first appeared in the 1830s and then spread rapidly, as the Hawaiians, with less immunity against infectious diseases, were extremely susceptible to it.
Only after 1946, when sulfonamide was used to stem the spread of the disease, and shortly after to remove the fear of infection, were new cases drastically reduced.
Today, some patients still live in Kalaupapa, with the right to remain there for the rest of their lives. They are now allowed to move around freely and can leave the small colony at any time. However, there are no children here, as the law states that all new-born babies must leave for fear of infection and cannot return before they are 17 years of age.
To grasp the extent of leprosy in Hawaii, visit the cemetery - about 8000 victims are buried there.
One of the first tourists to visit Kalaupapa was the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote in 1889: "In the chronicles of mankind there exists, perhaps, no more melancholy place ... (its inhabitants) are strangers assembled together due to illness, disfigured, deathly ill, banished."
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