Pakistan’s leprosy fighter Ruth Pfau passes away
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Dr Ruth Pfau, the German-born Pakistani nun, known widely as the “Mother Teresa of Pakistan” for her 50-year-long struggle against the stigmatised disease of leprosy, has passed away at the age of 87 on Thursday morning.
Dr Ruth had been hospitalised at a private hospital in the city of Karachi for nearly two weeks, due to age related illness, but succumbed to her ailment early on Thursday.
Born in Leipzeg, Germany, on 9th of September 1929, she came to Pakistan in the 1960s to help fight the outbreak of leprosy, a bacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae (M. leprae). Since then, she had been working tirelessly to eliminate this disease and was one of the foremost factors behind Pakistan being declared a leprosy-free country in 1996. For her invaluable services, she was given Pakistani citizenship in 1988, among numerous other prizes.
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She also helped found the National Leprosy Control Programme in Pakistan and was the head of the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre (MAFP), where treatment is provided to leprosy patients.
Tributes have being pouring in for Dr Pfau, regarded as a messiah for leprosy patients, many of whom were considered social outcasts in earlier times. These tributes include those from Mamnoon Hussain, the president of Pakistan, popular politician Imran Khan, CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and many others.
Her funeral mass will be held at St Patrick’s Cathedral on August 19 at 11:00am, said the obituary by MASP Chief Executive Mervyn Lobo. Her services to humanity will always be remembered.
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