TREATMENT OF LEPROSY

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27425, 11 August 1954, Page 7

TREATMENT OF LEPROSY

ADVANCES REPORTED

SUCCESSFUL USE OF SULPHONE DRUGS

More than 6000 lepers were cured by new drugs of the sulphont g™“ last year in home and clinics assocF ated.with the world-wide work of the Mission to Lepers, says a statement issued by the New Zealand secrSa-v loathe mission (the Rev. Murray H. The effect of the sulphone drugs is now becoming apparent on a faree scale, he says Three years ago some hundreds of lepers were cured- the next year the number went up to 3500and it reached more than 6000 last The London headquarters of the mission also report spectacular art vances m the restoration of mobility to crippled and paralysed hands nf lepers. Many patients who ar" cured by the sulphone drugs are unable to earn a living because of the crinnlert condition m which the neural form of the disease leaves their hands but a technique of operation and nhvsin therapy has now been evolved' by which almost all those crippled in this way can be given sufficient use of theiF hands to become self-supporting r This pioneering work has beln done by Professor Paul Brand at Vellore South India, where he is professor of orthopaedic surgery. A well-known Wellington orthopaedic specialist °D? W. S. Robertson, has now taken un an appointment with the Mfolion P to P?&r a ßrand U aCt aS asslstant to

Dr. Robertson was for some years orthopaedic surgeon on the staff of the Wellington Hospital Board and had experience overseas with

New Zealand has helped the work for lepers m other ways. On a recent visit to India, Mr Feist and the Rev. j K. Reid, - South Island secretary for the mission, handed to Professor Gass at Vellore several hundred pounds’ worth o photographic equipment given by New Zealanders for use in the new Vellore research hospital. Several legacies and substantial gifts have beem received in New Zealand to providT otner scientific equipment for advanced leprosy research at Vellore.