MANY CURES

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXI, Issue 8839, 2 November 1942, Page 1

MANY CURES

WORK ON MAKOGAI ISLAND

TREATMENT OF LEPERS

BUSY ROUTINE AT THE STATION

The following interesting account of tho island of Makogai is forwarded by Mr P. J. Twomcy, of Christchurch: — Makogai is a high island, like most of the Fiji group. It is not more than' six or eight miles in circumference, which means that it is small enough to look really like an island and not a country, as Upolo, for instance, or Viti Levu do. It is fertile, and consequently covered witli tropical growth. Because of these qualities, it is very beautiful and it is also, of course, a leper station.

After seeing so much of leprosy for two or three weeks, we on the Matai had lost much of the horror that the average New Zealander seems to feel at the mention of tho disease, but the thought of much of it, concentrated in one place, was still an pnpleasant one. The mere sign* of Makogai was the best antidote to that sort of morbidness. There was no sign here of a curse. Tho lepers on the ship, were wildly excited, waving to anyone who appeared ashore, packing their belongings, the men doing what they could to loosen their house so that it could be tipped overboard and floated ashore. The people on the beach seemed to bo no less interested in us than we were in them.

Presently a. launch came out and two men came up the gangway, healthy, smiling men, obviously not in the least worried by life on a leper island. One was Dr. G. .T. Austin, the medical superintendent, tho other Mi McNair, a cheerful Scot who looks after the farming and public works on the island.

Makogai might have been a health resort for tired Now Zealanders for all the evidence there was in these two men that their island was different from any other. Life Oil Island Makogai is cosmopolitan, being supported jointly by seven Pacific administrations. of which New Zealand is

The road to tho village lay through vigorous island growth. We could almost have picked bananas and breadfruit from the car as wo passed. The village itself was extremely neat, the little houses, well-stayed against hurricanes, being as tidy as their grounds. Communal washing places with concrete floors and corrugated iron side* served the nearest few huts. There were none of the inhabitants in the village, for their were all waiting on

We drove back past the sisters’ quarters behind which is the planta-

tion where Makogai grows its own

chjiulmongra trees, to the landing to see the 30 or so Cook Islanders. Men, women and children, Vney stood in a row and listened to Dr. Ellison telling them of the hcrricane and answering their quest ions about their families and friends. The women wept silently. Now Zealander Cured A cheerful New Zealander who had been busy on the ship during tho morning, superintending the unloading of everything that the lepers had brought aboard, came up lo say goodbye. Cures are not, as Is often supposed, almost unheard of. Of the Cook Islanders who have been sent to Maokogai, one-third have been discharged, able to go home to their own islands! For those cases which are diagnosed in the early stages of the disease, there is quite a reasonable chance of recovery. As far as could be found out, there is no great amount of research into leprosy being done, and, naturally, at the leper stations tho doctors are too busy with routine work to do as much as they would like. Advances are made from time to time, however, and the technique of treatment improves. At present the best way of fighting the disease is to examine tho people in affected places as frequently as possible, and by early diagnosis increase the lepers’ prospects of being cured and decrease the chances of contagion.