CONTAGIOUS DISEASES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 188, 11 August 1925, Page 18

CONTAGIOUS DISEASES.

'To the K.iif.r I Wγ,- The Contagious Diseases Act oi Mr. Cladstone's (lav (repealed at the instance of tlit- Mell'odit-t part,\ )is now revived here in tin , newest approved regulations -roverniup the treatment oi infected person*, who are to be virtually prisoners of the medical authorities It i> to In- remembered tnat disease is never wilfully contracted and that cure is always desired. It is tlie nature oi the latest remedy and the exceedingly llf lijrthy treatment ueees-.ary. and tht fact i•■ iat the treatment itself is no! j always void l>; pain and danger, thai I makes some |>atiotits unwilling t> submit to and others anxious t< escape from diagnosis and rejrulai and sustained dosi:i-. In the mililei forms oi disease a harmless serum i> ■liiiclc in action and rpniark.iMy eili-icnf not only us a cure, but as a preventive rendering t tie patient lor »ume tim< immune. Inn in the severe disease tin treatment i> |iiirely chemical, for m scrum lias \el been prepared, or. if pre pared, proved reliable and brought int< use. The (.ennans substituted ar.-enica for mercurial methods of bacterial dcs miction, and iiitra-inusciil.-ir injection fur ..r;.l udiiiiiiUtration. and th. former method i- loudly aerl.iiined b' the profession it is neither simple no ,-peeily. The sjiiiMcliaeta ]-allida is ; toiigli and at prf-M'iM yield only in metallic poisoning. Once ii i lie circiilati'in ii mii-t bp killed then It i> i rue that the latest preparation of arsenic are said liv the manufacturer to he harmless, but a less drastic set o regulations would lie neivssary if a !es unpleasant and shorter mode of killin llie 1-acteria eollld be <liseovered. lon pulsion to pay medical fees, or attend free clinic a> a person whose libert has jjone. i- certain t" be resented, an the concealment and secret-V now s generally deprecated «i!l be most siirel aeeentuated. There rn:i>t be inevitabl one rule for the rich and another for th poor. wherein legal compulsion i exercised, and in <ircumstances v her disease is not selective and all elasjc are equally liable, this distinction \vi breed discontent. To make sufferei afraid, to forbid any but practitioners to help them, to rpgar tin-in as oll'cnilers rather than worth t.f sympathy, is to drive the trouh: underground and cneouraiie deceit. TV protection of i he innocent and pure ilie object of llie regulations. segregation of the afflicted is the on! conceivable way, why not place sevei venereal disease on a level with lepros and a'coholism. atul provide a form i isolation, the duration of which depem upon the patient's willingness to sn mit to treatment and the disappea nni'P of the disease, making the transfi of the disease to others the only exeu: for punishment and the offender criminal, as indeed he (or she) is. such cases':- 1 am. etc. COMMON* SKVSK.