The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-10-02
iLEPROSY In HAWAII
UNDER CONTROL
Result of New Treatment Have Been
Gratifying TO United States
Health Officials.
nv Assoeiated Press.,

Nby Associated Rress.l
Washington, Oct. 1.-Leporsy, a
scourge of humanity since early his
tory, apparently has been conquered
by officers of the United States Public
Health Service in the leper colony al
Kalihi, Hawaii. Forty-eight sufferers
of the dreaded malady, who have been
subjected 10 a new method Of tree
ment, have recovered to such extent
as'to warrant their release on parole
and, after a year, not one has shown
symptom Of recurrence
AS yet, no announcement of a cure"
has been made officially for some of
frankly skeptical OF the results. It
may be years before an official and
final opinion is given.
The limit of the official claim is
set forth in joint report to the Pub
lice Health Service made by DR.. J.
7. Mcdonald, director of the leprosy
investigation station and superintend-
ing physician to Kalihi hospital, and
by President A. L. Dean, of the Uni
versity of Hawaii. as follows:
1T has been sufficiently established
that chaulmoogra oil contains one or
more agents which exert a marked
therapeutic action in many cases of
leprosy. We can not say as yet that
the disease is cured, since we have no
test adequate to establish such a YER
dict. Whether or not the apparent
cures are real and permanent, IT is evil
dent that we have valuable agent at
our disposal in the control OF the dis
ease"
Chaulmoogra oil in it crude state is
no new drug for the treatment of lep-
rosy, but in its raw form 1t proved so
nauseating and painful to patients
that it had to he temporarily discon-
tinued. Science turned toward its
derivatives and Drs. Mcdonald and
Dean report ut was found that the
ethyl of the fatty acids were thin fluid
oils lending themselves readily to In
tramus .ular injections and were read
lily absorbed"
Injection of the oil derivative by a
syringe has brought new hope to the
leper, for at Kalihi hospital Injection
day" is described by the doctors re-
port as an occasion for merrymaIing
though of painful experience for the
sufferers.
THE standard treatment the report
says, now consists in weekly injec-
tons of preparation which consist
of the mixed ethyl esters of the acids
of chaulmoogra oil with two per cent
of iodine in chemical combination. The
amount used start at one cubic cen
timeter and is gradually increased To !
a maxit2um of four or five cubic GEN.
timeters for adults
Accessory treatments Of iodine lin !
iment, ointments and sun baths are
employed as measures to improve the
general health and mental attitude of
the patients.
Drs Mcdonald and Dean are of the /
opinion that leprosy of the nerve type |
as well as the nodular case should re-
ceive the new treatment. They report {
results with the nerve /
cases.
1--WE believe our remedies arrest the
they say regarding the nerve
cases, "and prevent further destruction!
Of hand and fingers. even when, as in
cases, normal functioh
can not be fully restored.
During the past year we have done
better than simply arrest the dcstruC-
tive process; we have had the great
IT secins marked improve
ment in a considerable number Of these
purely nerual .ases and apparently a
recovery in others. One
young man who came in with de-