Leprosy vaccine soon

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33601, 1 August 1974, Page 19

Leprosy vaccine soon

More research was being done now on leprosy than at any time in the history of the disease, Mr R. A. Alcorn, secretary of the Leprosy Mission in New Zealand, said in Christchurch.

1 A breakthrough in treat(ment of the disease would be made in the next five to (10 years, Mr Alcorn predicted. He has just returned from a fact-finding tour of India and Asia. i Mr Alcorn said that a new (multiple drug treatment (used experimentally in re--1 search centres resulted in no (incidence of the disease in (patients after six months. After a further four months treatment patients were clear for life. However, treatment under the programme cost about $5O per patient, and this kind of money was not available. although the course would become cheaper in time, Mr Alcorn said.

Within 10 years a leprosy vaccine would almost certainly be invented and available for huge innoculation programmes, he said. At pre(sent an unprecedented amount of research was being done on greater portions of infected tissue. ( The disease had been successfully cultivated in the • armadillo, and tissue specimens were sent to London 'headquarters for examination. The first armadillo 1 supplied researchers with Boz of tissue containing 7000 m leprosy bacilli per sq. (millimetre of tissue. SNEEZES Sneezes of infected persons were also thought to be one of the main sources of bacilli transmission, so nasal discharges were now being

• exported for research purposes. One sneeze contained 100,000 leprosy bacilli germs, Mr Alcorn said. Some persons took exception to experimentation with animals, Mr Alcorn said—“better animals than humans with this kind of risk factor.” Rehabilitation was a major problem in combating leprosy. Although patients were no longer infectious and had ! a certificate to prove it, it I meant nothing in local vil-( lage situations. Sufferers terrified’ of ostracism hid their disease or that of their children until it was far advanced, destroying their chances of complete recovery. i Large-scale education programmes to remove the stigma were under way, and specialists were being! employed to rehabilitate ( patients into industry and vocations chosen within the limits of patients’ disability. However, about four of every five leprosy sufferers was not receiving treatment [ —partly because there were vast areas not yet covered, and because people were reluctant to seek treatment and admit they had the disease. The mission works with

260,000 persons at a cost of $6 per person. There are an estimated 15 million leprosy sufferers in the world, and one third of these are children. Mr Alcorn said that New Zealand gave the .highest per capita amount toward leprosy work of any country in the world—s 6 to $7OOO per year. The mission’s international campaign to raise $lOO,OOO in its centenary year this year had produced about half that amount, Mr Alcorn said.