THE MENACE OF LEPROSY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 8 October 1936, Page 12

THE MENACE OF LEPROSY

NEW ZEALAND NOT IMMUNE MAKOGAI OUR PROTECTION (By A. M. Richards, M.A., Dip. Journ.) Mussolini’s lieutenants will have an enemy to subdue in “conquered” Abyssinia more stubbotn even than guerrilla bands —leprosy! By reliable accounts this terrible disease has been spreading “like wildfire” in the ancient e;npire for the last few decades. It has even been alleged—though this is certainly a wild exaggeration—that now one Ethiopian in every three is a leper. Information such as this shakes us out of the complacent certainty we are apt to possess that leprosy is a conquered plague. Actually it has spread in the last century into many lands where it was previously unknown, notably into our own Pacific area. Another fallacy regarding leprosy is that it is a tropical disease. But Abyssinia, though geographically so, is not climatically a tropica) country. The last known case of leprosy in the British-Isles was in the Orkneys. and leprosy still lingers not only in “warm” Italy, Portugal, Spain and Greece among European countries, but also in Germany and France, and in “cold” Russia, Norway and even Iceland! It will be news to many that there are New Zealand lepers. Mention of leprosy is made in Egyptian, Indian and Chinese writings from the earliest times. It was introduced into Greece and Rome between 400 and 345 B.C. by legions and traders returning from the East. In the time of Celsus 53 B.C. to 7 AX)., it was still a rare disease in Italy. But by the end of the seventh century it I had become common all over southern Europe. It was introduced into England about the year 950. The scourge was only kept within bounds throughout Europe in the Middle Ages by rigorous segregation. Rulers and clergy instituted leper asylums and enacted laws for the isolation ot lepers. The contaminated live by begging and by the charity of the Church. Medical ■ skill capable even of mitigating their disease did not exist. Cast out from human society, usually halfstarved and always slowly rotting to pieces, their condition was one of indescribable horror. But it was only by such drastic social surgery that the whole body of European Society was saved from a like destruction. To-day leprosy exists on a comparably large scale only in Africa and India. In India there was something like 105,000 lepers in a population of. 210,000,000 in 1891, i.e. one in 2.000. The highest endemic rate is in Central Africa where in the Belgian Congo something like 10 per cent, are lepers. The spread of leprosy into the Pacific began with Hawaii where the first case was noted in 1859. It sc spread among the natives that by 1865 there wehe 230 known lepers in a population of 67,000. In New Caledonia, where it was unknown until that year (1865). there were 4,000 lepers by 1888. The most recent island to be attacked (1920) is Nauru where the disease has spread with great rapidity. A spread upon a comparable scale would be unlikely in New Zealand for leprosy is, generally speaking, a disease of semi-civilisation. Savages are immune. The highly civilised are immune. Yet these statements ■ are only generally true. Cases of leprosy do occur every now and again in New Zealand from infection contracted abroad. If they were not promptly segregated no one in the country would be safe.

Until 1925 New Zealand lepers were kept on Quail Island in Lyttelton Harbour. Since then they have been sent to Makogai Island, in the Fiji group along with such cases as occur in our Island dependencies. Of the 580 lepers at present on the Island from various parts of the south Pacific no less than a hundred are from New Zealand and dependencies.

Makogai (the “g” is pronounced like “ng” in “sing”, and accent is on first syllable) is a former cocoanut plantation which was acquired by the Fijian Government as a leper asylum in 1911. There are five leper villages on the island each with its own dispensary. The sexes are kept separate, and so are the nationalities as far as possible. The Medical Superintendent appoints a headman from each village who is responsible to him for the cleanliness of the village and the good behaviour of its inhabitants. In cases where the disease is in early stages cure is attempted. Where it is far gone only mitigation is possible. Apart from the Superintendent and his Assistant the medical work is done by twenty-six nurses, of whom fifteen are white. They are nursing sisters of the Roman Catholic Church giving their lives to this task in response to an appeal from the Fijian Government. The Mission to lepers (Protestant) and the St. Francis' Leper Guild (Roman Catholic) care for lepers physically, mentally and spiritually throughout the world. But Makogai as the home of our own unfortunates has a special claim upon the goodwill of New Zealanders of all denominations.

While in its latter stages leprosy is accompanied by excruciating pain and disgusting symptoms, the pain of its earlier stages is mostly mental—exile, separation from family and friends, and the sense of doom. Tokens of remembrance and sympathy from the outside world are therefore of enormous value to the inhabitants of leper stations. The Medical Superintendent of Makogai has stated that the good wishes and gifts which New Zealanders have been making every Christmas for some years past have not only meant continued hope, courage and self-respect for all but have “in no small measure aided the cure” of many.

Again as Christmas preparations begin to be made we have the opportunity to bring literally new life to those who, in addition to terrible physical ill, are suffering the desolation of separation and (they fear) forgottenness in order that we, who remain may move happily among our fellows freed from the constant dread of a terrible contamination.