CURE FOR LEPROSY

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 123, 22 February 1928, Page 11

CURE FOR LEPROSY

ACHIEVEMENT OF BRITISH SCIENTISTS CAMPAIGN AGAINST DISEASE TO BE LAUNCHED Rugby, February 20. The newspapers report that British scientists have developed a cure for leprosy known as Hydnocarpus oil, ■ a remedy which will be used in a fresh campaign shortly to be launched to stamp out the scourge in the Empire. There are about 4,000,000 lepers in the world and about 1,500,000 in the British Empire. Thousands are concentrated tot treatment in a chain of leper stations throughout India and Africa, and it is anticipated many more centres will be opened shortly. Hydnocarpus oil is obtained from the dried fruit of the hydnocarpus, a tropical tree, which it is intended to plant in all parts of the Empire where leprosy exists. The oil should be 100 per cent, effective in the early stages of the disease and 20 or 30 per cent, in advanced cases. Sir Leonard Rogers, Secretary of the Empire Leprosy Relief Association, who did much research work in India, and who has been prominently identified with the development of the cure, savs the treatment lasts six months in the early cases and perhaps even longer when the disease is more advanced. The cost of the cure has been greatly reduced in the last twelve months, and doses sufficient for a year onlv cost half-a-crown.—British Official Wireless.