Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-04-29
CARING FOR OUR LEPERS
By Frederic J. Haskin

WTAsHINGToN, D. c.-Not long
Wv ago, young Italian
W woman applied to a
hospital dispensary in certain
eastern city to be treated for a pc
culiar skin disease. An examination
revealed the fact that it was leprosy.
Whereupon the citizens of the neigh
borhood where the young woman lived
shuddered and reported the matter to
the health authorities. Now the
health authorities had no authority
to act; there was the usual lack of
provision for lepers in the state bud
get. But they had to do something,
so they hurriedly erected a cabin in
an isolated district and removed the
young woman to it. Here she was
confined for several weeks until her
husband, also an Italian, secured her
release through the courts on the
strength of his promise to take her out
of the state and never to return.
This was all very well for that par
ticular state, but 1T is something of
a shock to learn that such cases hap
pen frequently-that persons afflicted
with leprosy are continually being
shifted around the country because no
state feels any special responsibility
for them. In this instance, of course,
the young woman was an Italian and
the state probably argued that it was
up to the Italian government to look
after her, certainly not the state in
which she happened to be a transient.
Still, it illustrates the universal laXity
of law which permits a person so af-
flicted to drop completely out of sight
with every chance of the infection of
others.
AS a remedy to this situation a bill
has now been introduced into Congress
providing for the establishment of a
national leprosarium where persons
so afflicted with leprosy may be ef-
fciently treated and properly isolated
from the rest of the community. AT
the present time there are only three
states which have any specific pro-
visions for lepers. There are state ap-
preparations for prisons, for insane as
but the lepers are in a class by them
selves. They are an obligation which
everybody has chosen to ignore and
shift on to somebody else.
Leprosy is not as contagious as some
other diSeases-tuberculo for eX-
ample. In Hawaii, where the dis
ease was thoroughly investigated at
the United States health station, it
was found that only five per cent of
the Hawaiian natives were actually
susceptible to it, In other words, of
all the persons thrown into direct con-
tact with lepers, sometimes living in
the same houses with them, only five
per cent contracted the disease.
Nothing definite is known as to how
the infection is carried, although it
is thought that the nasal secretions
have something to do with it.
Also, the theory has been advanced
that leprosy is due to diet. 1t was
brought out in the testimony before
the house committee reporting on the
bill for a national leprosarium, that
in Iceland it is supposed that the dis
ease is caused by the large amount
of decayed fish consumed. 1t seems
that in the keeping process the fish
sometimes become tainted, and this,
together with the fact that the ma
tives eat both heads and tails, is con-
sidered cause enough for leprosy. The
diet theory for leprosy was investiga-
ted by the same government commits
sion which investigated pellagra, how
ever, and it was not sustained.