LEPROSY IN SOLOMON ISLANDS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 271, 12 August 1938, Page 10

LEPROSY IN SOLOMON ISLANDS

Bishop Expresses Concern

NEED FOR MONEY TO PAY FOR TREATMENT

Concern at the incidence of leprosy in flip Solomon Islands was expressed by the Bishop of Melanesia, Rt. Rev. W. H. Baddeley, in an interview yesterday. He said that two years ago Dr. Clifford James, formerly of Dunedin, had been alarmed at the number of lepers entering the hospital on Malaita Island and had made a survey. The population of the island was about 40,000, and Dr. James had estimated that there were about 400 cases of leprosy. It was later found that the total was nearer GOO. Until then the presence of the disease had not been suspected. The .Melanesia* Mission had opened a small leprosarium and there had been as many as 95 lepers in residence there. As there was no compulsory segregation, however, the natives could come and go as they chose, and much of tire good work was undone. The administration had secured the services of an expert from the British Empire Leprosy Relief Association to make a complete survey of the Solomon Islands, and he had found Dr. James to have been roughly correct in his estimate of the number of lepers. The administration was not in the position to build a leprosarium, but the association had given a grant for building a dispensary and other assistance had been given which: enabled the mission to build huts to house the lepers. Their means had been diminished by a falling off in copra prices and they had been forced to limit the number of inmates to 50. Dr. James was treating the lepers by injecting an oil and many were showing a marked improvement. Dr. James had also been instrumental in getting a number of the worst cases to segregate in a village near the leprosarium where they could be kept under supervision. It was part of the treatment for them to be kept busy "and they had taken up gardening and were growing much of thenown food. Cost of Maintenance. The problem was the question of funds. It was estimated that the cost a head in a well-established leprosarium was about £27 a year. By allowing the natives to grow their own food and by rigid economy the mission leprosarium had been able to reduce the cost to £l6 a head. The Government gave a subsidy of about 50 per cent, and the mission met the remaining cost out of its own funds. The site they had was capable of housing 200 lepers, but the number was limited by the cost of maintenance. Dr. James had a launch in which he moves: ypund the coasts of the islands, but the large proportion of lepers were in bush villages. There was no doubt that the disease bad been imported as there was no word in any of the native languages for leprosy. It had spread because of the scanty nature of the food eaten by the natives, which made their bodies incapable of resisting contact with the disease.