A millennial disease, reported in countless biblical passages, leprosy still silently affects thousands of people in Brazil. According to data from the Ministry of Health, around 30 new cases of leprosy are identified every year in the country. With the proposal to make communicative practices about the grievance accessible, Fiocruz launched the Bank of Educational Materials on Leprosy.

The project is the result of the thesis on 'The word & things: production and reception of educational materials about leprosy', defended at the Sérgio Arouca National School of Public Health (Ensp/Fiocruz). The study, supervised by Simone Monteiro, head of the Environmental and Health Education Laboratory at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (IOC/Fiocruz), was defended by Adriana Kelly Santos, in 2009.

Part of the open access collection are leaflets, booklets, games, periodicals, postcards, among other materials developed by governmental and non-governmental institutions for the dissemination of public health campaigns in the country. The 276 materials that make up the bank were produced between 1972 and 2009, the year in which the researcher defended her thesis.

The research of materials in the electronic collection, available at http://hanseniase.icict.fiocruz.br/, can be done by themes, formats or states.