CURE FOR LEPROSY

Evening Star, Issue 19796, 21 February 1928, Page 6

CURE FOR LEPROSY

BRITISH SCIENTISTS' SUCCESS EMPIRE CAMPAIGN TO BE LAUNCHED EFFORT TO STAMP OUT SCOURGE. (British Official Nows.) Pre*j Association—By Wireless—Copyright RUGBY, February 20. (Received February 21, at noon.) The newspapers report that British scientists have developed a cure for leprosy, known as hydnocarpus oil. Tho remedy 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 are in the British Empire. Thousands are concentrated for treatment in a chain of leper stations throughout India and Africa, and it is anticipated that many more countries 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. There should be 100 per cent, effective in the early stages of the diseases 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, says that the treatment lasts six months in early cases and perhaps even when disease is more advanced. The cost of tho cure has been greatly reduced in the last twelve months, and doses sufficient for a year only cost half a crown.