Order of Malta

The Philippine Association has been very active in assisting in the cure of leprosy and the rehabilitation of its victims.

In 1972, the Philippine Association started providing medicines and other forms of assistance to the Culion Sanitarium and this was soon extended to include the Central Luzon (Tala) Leprosarium.

In 1974, members of the Philippine Association organized the Tala Foundation, Inc. to channel the assistance to the Tala Leprosarium.

Then in 1976, they organized the Culion Foundation where significant work has been done with great success in the application of the Multi-Drug therapy regime for the cure of leprosy.

With the success of the Multi-Drug Therapy, other aspects of the treatment of leprosy became evident, particularly in the need of effective diagnostic methods for the early detection of leprosy in view of its long period of incubation.

In 1983, an agreement was signed with the Leonard Wood Memorial, one of the world’s leading leprosy research organizations, for the Order to help them in their works.

In 1991, the Philippine Association joined a consortium composed of the University of Hawaii, the Leonard Wood Memorial, the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, the Culion Foundation, and the Culion Sanitarium, to study the application of the ENZYME-LINKED IMMUNOSOLVENT ASSAY (ELISA) technique for the early detection of leprosy.

The Association is a charter member of the Philippine Leprosy Coordinating Committee and the International Committee of the Order of Malta for the Assistance to Lepers (CIOMAL) based in Geneva, Switzerland. It has been very active in arranging for financial assistance from abroad to sponsor programs for the benefit of various leprosaria in the Philippines.

Work is going on at the Culion Sanitarium with great promise and because of this, the project has been expanded to include prophylactic treatment for persons found to be susceptible to leprosy and to control the disease before it further develops. Likewise, leprosy work has been extended and duplicated in the Tawi-Tawi and Zamboanga areas in the South and Siquijor in the Visayas.

Aside from this, the Philippine Association also actively assists various leprosaria throughout the Philippines by giving them medicines, medical supplies, and nutritional products received as donations from abroad. Individual members of the Association have also contributed substantially to the building and maintenance of the infrastructures of these leprosaria.