VENEREAL DISEASE

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 42, 18 August 1922, Page 5

VENEREAL DISEASE

EVIDENCE BY AUCKLAND l EXPERTS. ' '

(ST TILIORAPH.—PISiS MSOCIATIOK.) AUCKLAND, 17th August. Evidenco was given beforo the- Vene-' real Disease Committee that since the Auckland chnic was established in 1920 there have been 1218 cases treated, including 10S6 men and the rest women and children. The figures were take* as showing the large increase of both gonorrhoea and syphilis in the city, and the large disproportion between men and women \Wio were reporting. , Dr Falconer Brown, the officer in charfee of the Auckland chnic, said he considered that compulsory notification, 'while excellent m theory, was open to' question. Prophylaxis, which bad proved of great value in the army, was a thoroughly desirable measure, but at present public opinion would probably not ''countenance it. Clinics should be installed in 'all moderate-slued towns, with accommodation for in-patients I Dr. Hilda Northcroft, representing th« National! Council of Women, said that the causes were lack of home training and parental control Suggested remedies were compulsory treatment of all infected persons, the prevention 'of treatment by > others than duly qualified medical practitioners, making it an offence to communicate the disease to another person, a wide extension of edu cative measures, and as a measure of desperation, in the meantime, prophylaxis Dr. Frank Macky, venereal disease specialist, was of opinion that the provision in the Social Hygiene Act for bidding other than medical practitioners to treat the disease, was non effective, because of the publicity, in the event of a prosecution accruing, to the witnesses. He considered Uie use of prophylaxis an extremely efficient preventive, but the public would not tolerate the open advocacy of this method at the present stage.