VENEREAL CASES.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 January 1919, Page 3

VENEREAL CASES.

KO CAUSE FOR ALARM. Exception lias been taken in certain quarters in Wairarapa to the sending of soldiers, who are suffering from a venereal disease to the military camp at Featherston for treatment, and in order thai th'e public may obtain some information on the subject a Times reporter interviewed the medical authorities at J)efeTicfc Headquarters yesterday. "It r.'ould appear," said an official, ''that the publi: have been inundated with sioricn, which they have evidently accepted as being founded on fact, of soldiers vrho have contracted a venereal disease in Egypt or some other part of ths world It has been stated that soldiers have desired to be reported as 'missing' in order that their next-of-kin may not know of the virulent disease from which they were suffering, and that the Defence authorities'had complied with that wish. Other stories, equally as ridiculous, ha\e been circulated throughout the Dominion, and it is a difficult matter to catch up with them There is absolutely no truth in these stories, and the public can vest assured that the Defence Department is only too willing to furnish all th{ information they possess in, respect of any member of the New Zealand Forces to those who, desire and are entitled to know it." Surgeon-General P.. R F. Henderson, Director-General of Medical Services, stated that venereal eases of disease had been treated at Featlierston Camp ever since it was established. There were no virulent cases amongst them and, in fact, there are none in the nrmv to-day. The disease was take in hand in its early stages, and the medical treahment given prevented the disease from becoming malignant. In respect to Featherston, the public had nothing to fear, as the cases treated there were all of a curable character, and, in fact, the majority of the patients were in a convalescent state when admitted. Of the December drafts of returned rum, only Ave were suffering from p venereal disease, and the reports received in Tegard to the January drafts yet to arrive shows that there are seventeen patients. Many of these men are cured on the voyage, and proportion of the cases represent men who have contracted the disease at way ports. In many instances men nre sent to a segregation camp as a precaution, and probably it would be found, if inquiries •rrre made, that there is a greater number of venereal cases among the civil population than >:i the Army.