LEPROSY AMONG BLACKS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 11 October 1924, Page 10

LEPROSY AMONG BLACKS.

POSITION IN' AUSTRALIA. A REASSURING REPORT. SYDNEY, Sept. 16. For some time alarming reports have been circulated alleging a serious spread of leprosy in the north-west of Australia, particularly among the blacks. These led the Federal .Government to appoint a highly qualified ofiicer, Dr Cook, who made a special study of leprosy at the Tropical Diseases Institute in London, to make a careful investigation on the spot. On this w’ork he has been engaged since May, and he has now reached Perth on his return journey with a most reassuring report. Dr Cook said that lie had not found a dozen eases of leprosy, and he had travelled from Onslow to Wyndham, visiting most of the pastoral stations where natives were employed. He had not been to Marble Bar, nor along the coast north of the Liverpool Range,, but wherever suspects were reported he had visited and examined the natives, and considered that he had met a thoroughly representative lot, from whom he was able to make general deductions. Dr Cook explained that there was a lazaret at Derby. Here he had found four native lepers. There were seven leprosy patients there now, including one white man. Two native lepers were now isolated at Roebourne. One case had been discovered at Beagle Bay. Naturally the residents of were somewhat perturbed by the presence of leprosy in their midst. The white patient had been a patient in the hospital adjoining the lazaret, and it was alleged that he had become infected while in hospital, but there was evidence to show that he had contracted leprosy years prior to his admission to the hospital.