LEPERS IN MANILA

Wanganui Chronicle, 4 August 1948, Page 4

LEPERS IN MANILA

THE decision of the health authorities in Manila to segregate lepers has been resented by the patients concerned and a number of them have broken bounds. The of the patients of the leper hospital can be understood, while the anxiety of the authorities can be appreciated.

Leprosy is a contagious disease, but it is not so contagious as tuberculosis. A medical man of long tropical experience as a health authority has been known to observe that he would rather have a leper in his kitchen than a T.B. patient. So long as there is no break in the skin it does not appear that leprosy infection is likely to occur and this provides the average person with apparent immunity. On the other hand the difficulty of effecting a cure is considerable and the chances of a cure being effected depends upon the type of leprosy that has been contracted and the degree of infection.

A close survey of the islands population would most probably lead to the discovery that many more people are suffering from leprosy infection than is generally appreciated. Those who are sufferers in a mild form, when treatment would be convenient and permit of speedy cures being effected, are prone to cover up their disease and to keep it a close secret. They fear being driven out of their villages by their relatives and neighbours more than anything else and the prospect of segregation after discovery adds another terror to their simple minds. On the other hand there are persons on Malokai Island who have been cured of their infection and who are at liberty to leave the island and return to civilisation. Their years on the island, the comfortable surroundings, the absence of the risks incidental to life in the wider world, however, impel them to remain where they are. They do not fear further infection.

The treatment of lepers, however, is a very costly operation and it is natural for health authorities to take every precaution against it being spread among any population. Immediate segregation of a fairly strict character is the first essential in any campaign for bringing the disease under anything like control.