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ePaper created 2014-09-15, 12:31:02 | version 1.32.01
Research From leprosy clinic to skin infections clinic An outpatient leprosy clinic was established in the 1960s by Dick L. Leiker at the AMC’s Department of Dermatology. Among former dermatology residents, the clinic was also known as the “Hansen poli”, after the discoverer of the leprosy bacterium. Derk Luitjen Leiker Derk Luitjen Leiker (1919-1995) finished his medical studies in Groningen in 1948 and left as a medical missionary to former Dutch New Guinea. In 1953 he was appointed by the Dutch government as head of the local leprosy control programme. Influenced by the American leprosy expert Norman R. Sloan, he broadened his knowledge of leprosy. Little was known about the epidemiology of leprosy in New Guinea, and Leiker initiated large-scale house-to-house population surveys. He later specialized in dermatology in Rotterdam. Having completed his specialization, he accepted an appointment as head of the leprosy programme of Northern Nigeria in 1961, which involved the care of 360,000 registered leprosy patients. In 1965 Leiker received the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Medicine recognising his achievements in the field of leprosy. In the same year, he returned to the Netherlands to devote himself to leprosy research as a senior lecturer at the Royal Dutch Institute for the Tropics in Amsterdam. In 1964 he described a new disease entity “Granuloma multi- forme” presenting as atypical tuberculoid leprosy in patients in Nigeria.[1] Together with Ciska Anten-Mengelers, he founded the Dutch Leprosy Foundation (NSL) in 1967. He was also a visiting consultant for leprosy at the Rotterdam University clinic. At the time, the number of leprosy patients from the former colonies was significant and reached a peak after Suriname gained independence in 1975.[2] As a consultant for the WHO, Leiker was a pioneer in the evaluation and implementation of Multi Drug Therapy (MDT), still the mainstay in the current treatment and eradication programme of leprosy.[3] In 1981 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Amsterdam. After Leiker’s retirement, William R. Faber succeeded him as head of the leprosy clinic in 1981. 33 BWEADVSMGFINCORR:Opmaak 1 21-07-2014 17:39 Pagina 33