CARE OF LEPERS.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18414, 22 June 1925, Page 14

CARE OF LEPERS.

METHODS OF TREATMENT. Leprosy is yielding to medical treatment in a wonderful way, according to Mr "\\\ H. P. Anderson, general secretary of the Mission to Lepers, London, who is at present in C'hristchureh, and who has recently visited tho leper institutions in India and Eastern Asia. "For long years alleviation only of the lepers' sufferings was possible," said Mr Anderson. "That situation has completely changed. Treatment for leprosy can now be given in most cases with every hope of permanent benefit, j Modern treatment consists of the use j by injection, under the skin and into j the affected parts, of the derivatives of c-haulmugra oil. This oil has been long known ;is possessing effective properties in the treatment of leprosy, but in j its crude state very few can take it in | effective deses, because of its nauseat- | ing qualities and other action 011 tho j Tmman system. Hence the value of j being able to use it iu a way that overcomes the former difficulties. The results are highly encouraging. Large numbers of the inmates'of leper homes are benefiting to a marked degree. Some of these after a reasonable period of observation have even been discharged as being 11011-infeetive and free from any active symptoms of the disease. This has naturally brought about a situation of hopefulness. "Of the many lepers I saw recently in India," continued Mr Anderson, "comparatively few were hopeless cases, and even some of the advanced cases showed improvement. Those in the less advanced stages and early cases were all showing marked improvement and many were getting better. It should bo remembered, however, that leprosy is frequently baffling in its development. Research shows that the disease in its earliest stages is generally non-infective and then normally passes into a stage ■when it becomes increasingly infective, and subsequently, having ' reached a climax of infectivity, gradually becomes less and less infectious as the system develops immunity. But it is immunity won at a price, a price often so great that what is left is a mere burnt-out/ ruin of what had once been fair to look upon. Our effort, while continuing to make provision for the care of the advanced cases, is to prevent such a development of the disease in others." Mr Anderson told a reporter that the London Council of the Mission had sent him to study the situation created by the successful treatment of leprosy and to examine the opportunities for extension of the Mission's work in the Far East. He visited India, China, Korea and Japan, and came by way of Australia to New Zealand. He was here to express the appreciation of the support received by the Mission and ta outline to the local committees the present situation in the Mission fields. The present situation in the countries in which the Mission was carrying on constituted one of the greatest calls to service that it had ever had, and already two important schemes for extension of worlc in China, had been approved by the London Council, and the extension in Tsinan, Shantung province, would be proceeded with immediately. While in India, Mr Anderson was the chairman of. tho Allahabad' Conference, which made some valuable findings about leprosy. He will visit Invercargill.and Dunedin before he leaves for England via Vancouver. Mr Anderson mil give an address on the work of the Mission in the East at the Y.M.C.A. Concert Hall to : inorrow night. ■ .