Hansen's disease emphasizes the difference between healthy and sick people and between communicable and non-communicable disease. Based on these distinctions, society creates judgments that separate normality from abnormality. The changes that sick people experience during illness have been the subject of academic research, including analyzes of illness as a metaphor and critiques of the disciplinary forces of biopower. The disease shows how sick people often find themselves outside their usual physical and social roles. This process sometimes takes place voluntarily, but often without their will. The article points out how the identification of the disease leads to the exclusion of the sick from ordinary social life. Research in this area explores the deeper relationships between illness, identity, and an individual's social status.