INCREASE IN LEPROSY

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29068, 3 December 1959, Page 27

INCREASE IN LEPROSY

Health Survey In West Bengal The results of a health survey in the big iron-mining area of West Bengal have aroused “feelings of horror, pity and anger” in New Delhi, according to a leading article in the “Statesman,” one of India’s best-known English language dailies. This is because of the alarming increase in leprosy which the survey re vealed. The survey was carried out by the Mines Board of Health among workers in the iron and steel industry of Asansol, West Bengal The report said that leprosy was on the increase in the area and that more than 5000 cases were discovered in this one mining town. In some areas they found a leprosy case in every fourth house. One in a 100 of all the boys in the schools had the disease. (Girls are not nearly so susceptible as boys, though why this is so is not known). In some villages 2 per cent of all the people had leprosy. The “Statesman” paid a tribute to the work of the Mission to Lepers, to local Methodist missionaries who co-operate with them, and also to the local Rotary Club. The mission established the Raniganj Leprosy Home in this district more than 50 years ago, and now maintained a 100bed hospital there. It is sadly hampered by lack of funds, and could not cope with the situation Leprosy sufferers have always hidden their symptoms as long as possible, and this has been one of the difficulties faced by the doctors fighting the disease. But in this area it was found that the condition had become so common that victims were no longer bothering to hide their symptoms. The newspaper said that it was not unusual now to see leper mothers with claw-like hands trying to feed little children, and concluded by saying that high hopes had been raised by the sulphone drugs, but these had to be used intensively before such situations as this could be met