HOPE FOR LEPERS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2896, 13 June 1925, Page 3

HOPE FOR LEPERS

SUCCESS OF MEDICAL TREATMENT. Auckland, June 11. A statement that the day has passed when to be a leper means ostracism from society for all time was made yesterday by Mr. W. TT. P. Anderson, general secretary to the Alission of Lepers, London, who arrived this irifeek from Sydney. “An extended visit made recently to leper institutions in India and Eastern Asia has enabled me to see miracles of cleansing,” said .Mr Anderson. “The age-long disease of leprosy is yielding to medical treatment in a wonderful way. It is a day of good tidings for the lepers of the world, of whom there are, perhaps, no fewer than 2,000,000. Africa and Asia are the continents most seriously affected. For long years alleviation only of the lepers’ sufferings was possible. That situation lias completely changed. Treatment for leprosy can now be given in most cases with every hope of: permanent benefit. The modern treatment i onsists of the use, by injection under the skin and its affected parts, of the derivatives of e-haul-mugra oil. This oil has been long known *fts possessing effective properties in the treatment of leprosy, but in its crude state very few can lake it in effective doses, because of its nauseating qualities and other action on the human system hence the value of being able to use it in any way that overcomes the former difficulties. The results are highly encouraging. Large numbers of 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-in-fective and free from any active symptoms of the disease. This has naturally brought hopefulness to many lepers, “I saw recently in India,” continued Air. Anderson, “comparatively few that were, hopeless cases, and even some of the. advanced cases showed improvement. Those in less advanced stages and early cases were all showing marked improvement, and many were getting better. It should he remembered, however, that leprosy is frequently baffling in its development. Research shows that the disease in its earliest stages is generally noninfeetive, and then normally passes into a stage when if, becomes increasingly infective, and subsequently, having reached the climax of inf'ectivity, 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 advanced cases is to prevent such development of the disease in others.”