SKIN DISEASES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17955, 6 December 1932, Page 2

SKIN DISEASES

EAST COAST EXPERIMENTS i DISTRICT NURSES CO-OPERATE Details of the conclusions reached after extensive experiments in connection with skin diseases carried on in the East Coast district among _ the natives, are given in a section of the director-general 's report on the Health Department, now available for tho study of all who may lm interested. This section represents a report made by Dr. H. B. Turbott, medical officer oi: health at Gisborne. In the course of the report, mention is made of the co-operation cntcicd into by the school nurse, Miss I. Cox, the nurse inspector, Miss North, district nurse at Whakatanc, Miss Hill, and the district nurse at Tilatiki, Miss TJniaekc. Their respective experiments and observations provided the basis for the report, and mention is made by the director-general of the careful recording of observations, and the general value of experiments made in fyur different centres with the various treatments. In connection with the treatment ot scabies, the experiments produced comparative results from the use of the routine departmental sulphur ointment, and the ointment known as the Danish treatment. It was found that the latter unguent, which is a special ointment which in contact with the skin produces hydrogen sulphide, gives a much better result than the standaid ointment used by the department. Of 50 eases treated,' S per cent, were mild, 32 severe, and 60 per cent, very severe, and the average number of treatments required for the cure of the skin trouble was only LOO. In 22 of the 50 cases, the Danish treatment yielded results after only one treatment; moreover the hydrogen sulphide was said to be easier to apply, and the suffering ended quickly after its application. The conclusion reached was that though tho cost was slightly higher, amounting to I.OOd. per cure iu the course of the experiments, as compared with Ls7d. per cure with the use of the departmental sulphur ointment, to continue with the apparently cheaper drug was really Jalse cconomv." In respect to the treatment of impetigo, the investigations revealed a curiously interesting link with wartime experience of skin diseases, it was found that one of the Last ( ape district nurses had been using for years a paint mixture which was said to have been used in Egypt in wartime, the ingredients being one part of starch, two parts glycerine, and six parts of boiled water, to which, when cold, is added one part of iodine. Compared with the departmental white precipitate ointment, it was found that the paint mixture was cheap to make, and that though the cures effected required more treatments, the cures came more quickly and the cost per cure worked out at 0.95c1. as against 2.16(1. per cure in the case oi tho white precipitate ointment. The conclusion reached from the use of the two treatments was that the department's ointment was very success fill and easy to work with, and that a cheaper alternative was available if required. Pediculosis was the subject of experiment with four recognised treatments, all of which were equally successful in the long run. Sassafrasoil was found most easy to work with, taking least applications, but proving most expensive of the four. Kerosene and vaseline wore found to effect cures cheaply and quickly, without pain to any marked degree, the main disadvantage in the use of' kerosene being the fire risk, which, however, could he guarded against