What percentage of medieval hospitals cared for leprosy patients?

• A. 10%
• B. 70%
• C. 50%
• D. 31%

Answer: (D)

Medieval hospitals varied a lot in what they provided, and leprosy care was not the universal purpose of most institutions. Leprosy patients were often housed in separate leprosaria or kept in isolated wards away from the general sick, rather than being treated in every hospital. The evidence indicates that only about a third of medieval hospitals included care for leprosy patients. This shows that while leprosy care existed within the hospital system, it was not the dominant function of most hospitals. The rest focused on other needs—general infirmary care, wounds, childbirth, plague, or serving the poor and travellers—reflecting how such facilities were organized and how leprosy was managed and stigmatized in medieval society.