TREATMENT OF LEPERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19041, 11 June 1925, Page 11

TREATMENT OF LEPERS.

SUCCESSFUL- RESULTS. MODERN METHODS . EMPLOYED. " MIRACLES OF CLEANSING." A statement that the day has passed when to be a leper means ostracism from society for all time, was made yesterday by Mr. W. H. P. Anderson, general secretary to tho Mission of Lepers, London, who arrived this week from Sydney. , "An extended visit made recently to leper institutions in India and Eastern Asia lias enabled me to see miracles of cleansing," said Mr. Anderson. "The [ age-long disease of leprosy is yielding to medical treatment in a wonderful way. It is a day of good tidings for the lepers of the world, of whom there are perhaps no fewer than 2,000,000. Africa and Asia are the continents most seriously affected., "For long years alleviation only of tho lepers' sufferings was possible. That situation has completely changed. Treatment for leprosy can now be given in most cases with every hope of permanent benefit. Modern treatment consists of the use by injection, under the skin and into the affected parts, of tho derivatives of chaulmugra oil. This oil has been long known as possessing effective properties in the treatment of leprosy, but in its crude state very few can take it in effective doses, because of its nauseating qualities and other action on the human system. Hence the value of being able to use it in a way that overcomes the former difficulties. , The results are highly encouraging. Large numbers of the inmates of leper homes are benefiting to a marked degree. Some of these after a reasonable "period of ob servation have even been discharged as being non-infective and free from any active symptoms of the disease. This has naturally brought about a situation of hopefulness. " Of the many lepers I saw recently in India," continued Mr. Anderson, " com-; paratively few were hopeless cases, and even some of the advanced cases showed improvement. Those in the less advanced stages and early cases were all showing marked improvement and many were getting better. It should be remembered, however, that leprosy is frequently baffling in its development. Research shows that the disease in its earliest stages is generally non-infectivo, and then normally passes i into a stage when it becomes increasingly infective, and subsequently, having reached a climax of infectivity, gradually becomes less and less infectious as the system develops immunity. But it is immunity won at a price, a price often so great that what is left is a mere burntout ruin of what had once been fair to look upon. Our effort, while continuing to mako provision for the caro of the advanced cases, is to prevent such a development of the disease in others. The Mission to Lepers emanated from the good work done by a young Irish missionary, Mr. Wellesley C. Bailey, who, in 1369, began to help a small number of lepers in-the Punjab of India. The mission is now operative in 95 centres, in India, Eastern Asia and other parts of the world, and is caring for 8000 lepers in its own„_and aided- institutions. Mr. Anderson, who leaVes Auckland by the Aorangi on July 7 for the U.nited States and England, intends to visit tho other centres of New Zealand in the interests of his society.