CONQUERING LEPROSY.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 August 1926, Page 9

CONQUERING LEPROSY.

WHAT SCIENCE HAS DONE AND IS DOING. Leprosy Relief Association for 1925 States that leprosy was formerly regarded as incurable, but recent researches have led to the discovery of methods of treatment, which, is given at a sufficiently early stage, cause the disappearance of all signs of the disease (says the World Magazine). It is now certain that leprosy can be eradicated from any country where adequate arrangements are made for the proper treatment of persons contracting the disease. Ethyl esters, obtained from the oil from the ripe seeds of the Southern Indian tree, have been used for a new treatment, but it has been found that the pure oil from the ripe seeds of the tree is as efficacious, and It is therefore possible to obtain the treatment at one-tenth the former cost. Research is still going on, and great things are expected from the combination of these compounds with certain metals. Contrary to the general belief, leprosy is not very infectious, and under good sanitary and climatic conditions infection is practically unknown. The realisation that early stages of the disease can be cuyed has brought far more patients to be treated, as formerly they never came until the disease had run its course for about file years. On tl>» lowest computation, there are 360,000 lepers in India and other British possessions, and the real number Is probably far greater. Favourable reports continue to be received of the beneficial results of the new treatment.