CURE FOR LEPROSY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 284, 21 February 1928, Page 9

CURE FOR LEPROSY

CHEAP AND EFFECTIVE EMPIRE WAR ON DISEASE British wireless —Press Assn.—Copyright Reed. 12.30. RUGBY, Monday. The newspapers report that British scientists have developed a cure tor leprosy, known as the Hydnocarpus Oil Remedy, which will he 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 for treatment in a chain of leper stations throughout India and Africa, and it is anticipated that many more centres will be opened shortly. The hydnocarpus oil is obtained from the dried fruit of the hydnoearpus, a tropical tree, which it is intended to plant in all parts of the Empire where leprosy exists. Treatment 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, say that the treatment lasts six months in early cases, and perhaps even longer when the disease is more advanced. The cost of the cure has been greatly reduced in the last 12 months, and doses sufficient for a year only cost half-a-crown.—A. and N.Z.