Kyperounta Sanatorium remains an integral part of the history of medicine in Cyprus, Health Minister Neophytos Charalambides said on Sunday during a literary memorial for tuberculosis patients who were treated and died there.
Over time, he said, the sanatorium expanded its role by also treating other categories of patients and, after 1974, evolved into a regional hospital. In recent years, as Troodos Hospital, it has been renovated and upgraded and continues to provide substantial health services.
He said the strengthening of the tuberculosis clinic was also particularly important, as it showed the state’s continued commitment to the prevention, control and effective treatment of the disease.
“Cyprus is now among the countries with a low incidence of tuberculosis, the result of targeted public health policies, early diagnosis and a systematic therapeutic approach,” Charalambides said.
The highlighting and care of the site, he added, is not only an act of historical restoration but also a meaningful tribute to people who experienced the disease under conditions of social exclusion.
“By honouring today the memory of the people who were tested and lost, we pay the respect that is due to them and recognise our responsibility to safeguard public health with consistency and humanity,” the health minister said.
He referred to the history of the disease internationally and in Cyprus, saying that in the sanatorium’s early years society’s attitude towards tuberculosis was marked by strong prejudice and fear.
“Despite the difficulties, Kyperounta Sanatorium developed into a place of treatment, care and hope, but also into a silent witness to human pain and suffering,” he said.
He said one particularly painful aspect of this history was the handling of patients who died during the institution’s early years.
In the early 1940s, he said, fear and social prejudice created conditions that did not allow those who died to be buried in the cemeteries of nearby communities, while in many cases even their families hesitated to take responsibility for burial.
As a result, he added, a special burial site was created near the sanatorium, a simple and silent place, deeply charged with history and marked by the lives of people who died prematurely and often far from their loved ones.
He said the burials took place in the presence of very few people and that in many cases the graves remained unnamed, without clear identification, something that deepens the emotion and sense of responsibility felt today towards the memory of those people.
He also referred to the existence of the cross of the little boy “Titos”, who died in August 1947 at the age of just three.