"INADEQUATE."

Auckland Star, 2 September 1933, Page 10

"INADEQUATE."

TREATMENT OF LEPROSY. MELANESIAN MISSION REPORT. "It is impossible from the financial standpoint for the mission to be expected ■ to carry on treatment of leprosy," stated Dr. F. A. Macpherson, the Meianesian Mfesion Board's new medical officer in the Islands. In a report to the board he said that on arrival he found 79 lepers in the colony of Quaibaita. There was no legislation in regard to compulsory treatment, and the natives stayed in the colony just as long as they thought fit. Xo patient had been in the colony longer than ten months, and the average length of stay was nine months. The leper (situation in the Solomon Telands was far too complex, in his opinioiffrfor any single organisation such ae the mission to cope with.

Although the Government contributed £5 per leper per year, the actual cost of treatment was £14. Even that amount wae far too email, and did not allow of adequate treatment. The latest report from the Cuilon leper colony, iu the Fiji Islands, ehowed that the sum of £37 10/ per leper per year was necessary, and that the length of time in the colony was over ten years. Recently 50 lepers who had been under the treatment in Fiji for eleven years were released, but in six months every one of them wae back again. "In view of the fact that leprosy is such an obstinate disease, and requires, aside from drugs, proper *ee:ling, sanitation and housing, it will bo seen that the treatment given at Quaibaita is wholly inadequate," lie said.

Dr. Macphereon said a visit to the t colony has been paid by Dr. Lambert, a member of the Rockefeller International Health Foundation, and an authority on leprosy treatment. In his opinion Quaibaita was "ridiculous." A conference had been held with the senior medical officer of the group and the Resident Commissioner, and it was agreed that the mission and the Government were losing money unnecessarily. Aβ a result it was thought- that adequate leper treatment would be given in the future by the Government agencies. That would save the hospital from £400 to £500 a year.