In the beginning, Leprosy was an enigma with more than 3,500 cases in Palamaner and Kuppam. Today, more than 20,000 cases have been detected and treated in and around these regions. In 1977, Leprosy Relief Work of Emmaus Switzerland came forward to treat and control leprosy with a “Mission - To help those in need”. Since then, Emmaus Switzerland has sponsored leprosy works in both these taluks; Palamaner and Kuppam and later in 1991 extended its activities to the neighboring six taluks of the Kolar district of Karnataka.
The base hospital is 5km from the town of Palamaner and the extension of the Emmaus hospital exclusively for Eyes is at Kuppam, 70 Km to the south of Palamaner.
From 1986, under the leadership and foresight of Dr.A.J.W.Jacob and with a dedicated team of the Emmaus Hospital at Palamaner, the old programs were intensified and new programs were integrated to maximize the use of the infrastructures where the need was felt the most for the control of Tuberculosis (Leprosy-TB pilot project 1986 started by Dr.Mario Vaz), Community Eye Care (Christofel Blinden Mission started in 1992) and Dental Care (Stated by a dentist from Germany in 1992).
The first Emmaus School was started by Mrs. Kathleen Jacob along with the support of General Health Care & Health Education. As an extension of the Community Development Program, General Out-patients and Disability Services were also offered to the visually, mentally and the physically challenged. In 1998, Research and Capacity buildings (2001) were built with the help of IPHCR of St.John’s Medical College, Bangalore.
During that time with the growth of various integrated projects, there was a corresponding increase in the number of patients coming into the hospitals. More number of equipments was required to meet the demands of various other services.
A team of sixty Para-medics trained in multi-purpose health worked and stayed in the villages.
Mobile team of doctors, Para-medics, technicians visited 242 treatment points through the
project area in a scheduled program every month.
