“V.D. exceeded in frequency only by common cold”

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32736, 13 October 1971, Page 1

“V.D. exceeded in frequency only by common cold”

Venereal diseases were exceeded in frequency only by the common cold; and in all parts of the world for which, there were accurate statistics the incidence was increasing, an eminent British authority on the subject, Dr Robert Lees, of London, said in Christchurch yesterday. .. . ."t . ■ -

Dr Lees will be in New Zealand for a month and will visit other centres and give lectures to medical bodies.

Dr Lees, who retired in 1968 as physician-in-charge of venereal diseases at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and as a senior lecturer at Edinburgh University, is in New Zealand at the invitation of the Christchurch Hospitals Post-graduate Society. He will attend and address a conference on venereology in Christchurch next week. There had been a marked increase of venereal disease in practically every country of the world and the big problem now facing the medical profession was the increasing resistance to antibiotics requiring ever larger doses for a cure, he said. “We can still cure everybody but there is a clear problem ahead of us,” said Dr Lees. “Hardly a month passes without some firm producing a new antibiotic. Resistant cases can be cured by new

and expensive prescriptions, but it is a steadily increasing problem.” At the moment even the most severe cases of venereal disease could be dealt with but the day was coming when this might not be possible, said Dr Lees.

He said that the cost to a country was high, particularly if the fact that the disease was largely preventable was taken into account. A conservative .estimate of the cost to Britain was between s2om and s4om a year. Venereal disease was both a medical and a social problem, but the incidence of it was primarily a social matter, said Dr Lees. Today’s permissive society condoned frequent sexual intercourse and from a non-moral point of view this might not matter if a person kept to the same partner, but unfortunately promiscuity was all too common.

Promiscuity was one of the major factors in the spread of venereal disease but there were additional factors such as alcohol. ' “There is no doubt that

many people would be sexually continent, certainly not promiscuous, but under the effect of alcohol they forget all their training and : inhibitions,” said Dr Lees. This applied to both sexes. There had been a complete Change in moral- outlook in practically every section of the community, said Dr Lees. Girls questioned the value of virginity and it was almost an insult to suggest that they were virgins, Young people were becoming sexually active at an earlier age. Dr Lees said he was an advocate for non-promiscuity. "One man—one woman is good advice,” he said. There was a need for more education on the subject. Such education should include the medical, sexuaj and moral aspects, said Dr

At the outbreak of World War II Dr Lees joined the British Army and was sent to the Middle East as consultant in venereal disease to the General Headquarters in Cairo where, he rose to the rank of brigadier.

At the height of the Middle ■ East campaign there were ' about one million men of all services from many coun--1 tries, including New Zealand and Australia, said Dr Lees. The Middle East was rife with venereal disease and the opportunity to contract it. . . Sulfa drugs were the usual, form of treatment but by the time the Allies got to Italy such drugs were beginning to lose their effectiveness. Fortunately about this time penicillin was proving to be extremely effective in quite small doses and although it was scarce and was used during its guaranteed life of one month on surgical cases, Dr Lees was able to gather what was left at the end of the month and use it on venereal disease cases where it "worked miracles.” “This was exciting stuff. Patients who had been in hospital for -weeks undergoing every possible method of treatment were cured in 24 hours with penicillin,” said Dr Lees.