The duty of the government in leprosy care and control / Isadore Dyer.

  • Isadore Dyer
Date:
[1914]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The duty of the government in leprosy care and control / Isadore Dyer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The response to the deliberations of the Berlin meeting was wide-spread, and a renewed effort was made by most civilized countries to investigate leprosy and to provide for its control. Among the few coun- tries which ignored the findings was the United States. EVIDENCE OF LEPROSY IN THE UNITED STATES; INDIGENOUS AND IMPORTED CASES Uwice in theslaststtteen my catcart cm on mera le Health Service has been authorized to make a leprosy survey in this country. The frst report: ot 1902 submitted 278 cases as the result of the commission’s work. Of these cases, 155 were from Louisiana alone. The balance of the cases came irregularly from other states, where no general system prevailed for the care of leprosy or of its notice. The second report, in 1912, I believe, showed prac- tically the same results. The mere compilation of state records and of cur- rent periodicals showed that neither of these official reports was of any statistical value. Since 1894, the Louisiana Leper Home alone has cared for nearly as many lepers as the Public’ Health Service statistics showed for the whole United States. That leper home has had a gradually increasing popu- lation, now numbering nearly 100 inmates. Texas has a number of cases, known to be as many as twenty-five or thirty, and estimated at twice that number; Florida has a number of cases also. There are cases in Mississippi and Alabama, and in all these states the great majority have originated in the state in which the disease has been recognized. California has had around thirty cases under control for many years. New York City has many cases—imore reported in the journals than in all other sections put together; in New York the number is usually estimated at more than 100.. Massachusetts has enough cases to have demanded an isolation hospital for them. Other states have noted cases, as Oregon, Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, Ohio, Indi- ana, etc. The disease is wide-spread and without much hin- drance or control. The easy entrance of these gases from foreign countries is evident in the clinics in New York City as reported at the various dermatologic soci-
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