Madison County Democrat. (London, Ohio) 19??-1958, 1951-04-10

Documents between the seventh
and twelfth centuries are scanty
and anything but precise. We
have no means even of being sure
when the description of elephan-
tiasis by Galen came to be con-
fused with the "lepra" of Jerome.
Such fragmentary evidence as
does exist suggests that tuber-
culosos and lukemia of the skin,
as we'll as some ring-worm and
yeast infections of the skin, ac-
counted for the majority of the
inmates of the medieval leper
houses.
We have, furthermore, no
means of knowing why the con-
dition which was called leprosy
suddenly disappeared from west
ern Europe simultaneously with
the great epidemic of syphilis at
the end of the fifteenth century.
1t seems plausible, however, in
view of the diagnostic difficult
ties which skin diseases present
even in our time, that physicians
who had been calling everything
leprosy suddenly began to call
everything syphilis, a condition
which the patients found much
less embarrassing! 1t was not un-
til 1871, when Hansen's bacillus
was discovered, that what we now
term leprosy could be diagnosed
with precision.
1t is estimated that there are
at present at least 5000, 900 people
in the world infected with Han
sens bacillus. Most of them in
habit the tropical zones, though
there are scattered foci in the Bal
tic countries, Norway and Ice
land and somewhat larger number
of cases in Japan and the north
ern coastal regions of China. Prob
ably 5000 victims live in the
United States.
The infectiousness of the dis
sease in this country is extremely
low, practically all the cases being
imported from the far north
east of Europe or from the tropics
or the Orient. In the United
States, the Hawaiian Islands and
the Philippines it has been obser-
we'd that the chance of contracting
the disease is extremely small
even when an uninfected husband,
or wife, goes to live with his mate
In a leper colony, Throughout the
last fifty years not one member
OF the medical or nursing staff
of the National Leprosarium,
Carville, La, has been infected
with the disease.
At present a formidable move
ment is under way to escape from
the completely unjustified revul-
sion which the name leprosy ex-
cites. This movement is prompted
both by consideration of justice to
the patient and by the public
health need of making the highly
promising new weapon of treat
ment available to every person
who is infected.
The purpose can easily be at
tanned by making official the al
ready widely used term Hansens
disease in place of a name which
has disastrous and altogether err
roneous biblical associations.
Some purists have objected that
1t is undesirable to have diseases
named after the man who first
described them or discovered their
cause. Words, however, are labels.
The avoidance of tragic misunder-
standings is far more important
than the adherence to artificial
standards of linguistic purism.
The official adoption of the
term Hansen's disease, which
seems not far off, will spare
thousands of patients from need
less SUFFERING. 1t will encourage
many more thousands to enter
sanitariums and take advantage
of the rapidly increasing prob
ability of cure. 1t will also re-
lieve hospitals and hospital ad-
ministrators Of one of the most
difficult and embarrassing prob.
lens that can ever confront them.
Wnvk nF