VENEREAL DISEASES.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15604, 31 May 1916, Page 4

VENEREAL DISEASES.

EXAGGERATED STATEMENTS

♦ LEGISLATION TO BE INTRODUCED.

(SFECIATj TO "the IVRESS.") WJSLLIXGTON, May 30. With regard to the statement of a Dunedin doctor that social diseases wore moro prevalent in Dunedin than usual, largely oil account of tho returned soldiers, Colonel Lewis, N.Z.M.C., who examines most of the men -who return from oversea, said that in the first instance thc<* prevalence of venereal diseases amongst our men returned from active serviec was very much "exaggerated. It was true that some cases of this disease were found among tho men returning. There were four cases of the disease on the Willochra, which was about the usual proportion among those returning—barely 2 per cent. — which, the Colonel "went on to state, was not a greater proportion than that to be found among the civilian population in young men about the ages or our returning troops. Dr. Valintinc said that the Minister of Public Health was in his determination t 0 introduce legislation during the present session, very much on the lines suggested by the report of the recent Koval Commission on social diseases. H was thought that no good would Ik* obtained by putting into operation anything in the nature of a Contagious Diseases Act, but that other means would most assuredly bo undertaken. . . From further enquiries from representative members of_ the, mcdieal staff of the I>unedin Hospital, it was found that one member was of tho opinion that there had been an increase in these cases, but others interviewed spoke by no means so oruphaticallj\ sayipg that no increase had been noticed in their general practice. The resident medical officers in Dunedin Hospital coiiiident that there was nothing to justjfy any alarming statements about the increase in the number of these cases.