MANY LEPERS IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21146, 23 April 1934, Page 12

MANY LEPERS IN AUSTRALIA

DOCTOR'S WARNING

REASON FOR CONCERN ;■' (MOM CCA O-WJf COJtRESI'OMURIIT.) \ SYDNEY, April 12. i Is leprosy a real danger in Australia? This question is brought forcibly to mind by a grave warning issued this week by the chairman of the Health Commission in Victoria (Dr. Robertson). Up to Aow nobody has been inclined to regard the disease with any misgiving, but the facts that have now come to light suggest that there is reason for a little more concern, officially and unofficially. It seems that in Queensland there are between 50 and 60 lepers and half of them are white. Five or six die every year, and a similar number of new cases are reported annually. Lepers are to be found everywhere in the state, and according to Dr. Robertson, one of them escaped not so long ago, and was found working as a waiter. On an island off New Guinea there are 400 lepers. There are between 300 and 400 at Nauru, about 600 at New Caledonia, and 300 at Makogai, near Fij i. Dr. Robertson says that the,re are about 40 cases of leprosy at Darwin. It was known that there were 33 aboriginals with leprosy scattered somewhere in North-Western Australia. A leper found in Melbourne had been isolated, and was making little superficial headway. If Victoria were combed it would probably be found that there were other cases in the state. The position was particularly serious because it had been discovered that the Chaulmoogra oil cure was not always effective. Four years might elapse after contraction before the disease became evident. Leprosy was not easly contracted, but the grip it had obtained in Australia was serious enough to warrant earnest consideration. Details of the extraordinary circumstances in which 33 lepers were liberated at Broome within the last six months were given for the first time by Dr. Robertson, although they have been known for some time by the medical profession. The Western Australian Government, he said, collected 33 aboriginal lepers at Broome and' commissioned a private lugger. to take them to an asylum. The Broome authorities refused to allow the vessel to sail without an overseas destination. A master could not be found and the skipper of the lugger tried through Canberra for a week for permission to sail with the lepers, as he was the only man available who knew the coast. Permission could not be obtained, so the skipper liberated the lepers at Broome, and they have since become scattered.