VENEREAL DISEASES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 46, 29 May 1916, Page 2

VENEREAL DISEASES.

Oil Wednesday, a reporter on the staff of the Otago Daily Times asked a leading Dunedin doctor to express an opinion whether venereal diseases were niore prevalent in Dunedin than usual. The'information obtained f rom ! the doctor was of a rather startling nature. He said he was distinctly ot the opinion that there was an increase in such diseases, no doubt due to con■;il >'io ll contracted from some of the retunied soldiers, and also from soldiers 1 who had contracted the disease win e in the camps in New Zealand. He add- ' ed that he was certain that the nunh--1 eal authorities attached to the Mditaiy Depr.r.ment had in-some instances not been sufficiently strict in their exammi ation of soldiers who were arriving by transports, and that, as a result soldiers suffering from disease had been allowed their freedom. He instanced 1 one ease which had come under his own ‘notice. A returned soldier had been I primarily responsible for the contamination of five people: He also mentioned another ease, where a cook m a local hotel was suffering from syphilis, land continued to follow his occupation The doctor remarked that the medica profession had absolutely no control over women who were suffering from contagious disease, and, as a iesii , I thov could spread the contagion far and wide. He was firmly ot opinion that some steps should bo taken by 'the Government to introduce a measure whereby men and women sufferin'* from a contagious disease should be prevented from being a menace to society. He personally favored a measure on the linos of the old Contagions Diseases Act. Touching on Me mattei | of the medical examination of returned soldiers, it is said that triUU |' port which brought back returned soldiers bad no fewer than 38 cases » venereal disease on board, iagbt o» I i the soldiers reported themselves as ‘suffering from the disease, am \ placed in quarantine, Ihe othei d(). however, did not report themselves, and, although it is not they might have recovered disease while on the voyage out ibeio was we understand, no particulai examination in their ---thoy previously reported themscW-and thev had slipped off the steamer aitli ICt «I U°e men »;ho had uot c.m-. traoted any disease- 11 “ e, " s eat from the inquire* “ porter that certain people stiongly ob tet to anv such measure as the Coi 1 Diseases Act They prefer to •ITTJrSSX in the sand, as the Ut v do and to delude themselves ps inches do, * l “ fc disease with the thought that a f* Which is a distinct menace to BOUet) does not exist. , • .. :::zi