Venereal Diseases in New Zealand (1922) | Page 5

sometimes striking down with palsy men in their prime,
or extinguishing the light of reason. It is an important factor in the
production of blindness, deafness, throat affections, heart-disease and
degeneration of the arteries, stomach and bowel disease, kidney-disease,
and affections of the bones. Congenital syphilis often leads to epilepsy
or to idiocy, and most of the victims who survive are a charge on the
State. This indictment against syphilis is by no means complete. The
economic loss resulting from this disease is enormous as regards young,
old, middle-aged. It respects not sex, social rank, or years.
Gonorrhoea is characterized in its commonest form by a discharge of
pus from the urethra, and causes acute pain at its onset in the male, but
in the female it commonly causes little or no discomfort. Unless
carefully treated, and treated early, it gives rise to many complications,
such as inflammation of the bladder, gleet, stricture, inflammation of
joints, abscesses, and rheumatism. It is a common cause of sterility and
of miscarriages, and, in the female, of many internal inflammations and
disablement, and in its later effects requires often surgical operations on
women. It is a very common disease, and the public know little of the
evil consequences which may follow what they have persisted in
regarding as a simple complaint. From its prevalence and its
complications it is one of the most serious diseases that affect mankind.
As regards treatment of venereal disease of all kinds, it should be
clearly understood that the causative germs are well known and can
readily be destroyed immediately after exposure to infection by
thorough cleansing with antiseptic lotion or ointment. The use of soap
and water only would lessen the incidence of infection. On the first
suspicious sign of venereal disease the patient should apply at once for
medical advice. There are methods of diagnosis, such as microscopic
examination and the Wassermann test, the result of recent discovery,
which make diagnosis simple and certain; and if treatment is begun

early according to modern methods, which are much more effective
than the remedies formerly applied, the germs of infection are easily
vanquished. When sufficient time, however, is lost to enable these
germs to become entrenched in parts of the body not readily accessible
to treatment, cure is difficult, prolonged, and perhaps in some cases
uncertain.
For their own sakes, as well as for the sake of others, patients suffering
from any form of venereal disease should continue treatment, which
may be prolonged in the case of syphilis for two years, until their
medical adviser is satisfied that further treatment is unnecessary.
Women suffer less pain than men in these diseases, and consequently
are more apt to neglect securing medical advice and treatment, and
more ready to discontinue treatment before a cure is effected.
SECTION 3.--ACCIDENTAL INFECTION.
Occasionally cases are met with in which syphilis is acquired
innocently by direct or indirect contact with syphilitic material, and
then the primary sore is often located on some other part of the body
than the genitals. Thus the lip may be infected by kissing, or by
drinking out of the same glass, or smoking the same pipe as a syphilitic
patient. A medical witness reported a case to the Committee in which
syphilis was conveyed to two girls "through a young fellow handing
them a cigarette which he was smoking." Metchnikoff has proved that
the spironema of syphilis is a delicate organism and quickly loses its
virulence outside the human body, and it cannot enter the system
through unbroken skin or mucous membrane. It is extremely doubtful if
any form of venereal infection can be conveyed in food. Frequently
venereal disease is deceitfully attributed by patients to innocent
infection, and no doubt some genuine cases do occur, but how seldom
is illustrated by the statement of the Officer in Charge of the V.D.
Clinic at Christchurch, who said, "I cannot remember a case where I
was absolutely certain that infection was acquired innocently or
extragenitally."
Gonorrhoea may be conveyed innocently from infective discharge on a

closet-seat, or from an infected towel, &c., and undoubtedly
gonorrhoeal discharge if brought into contact with the eye sets up a
violent suppuration.
The Committee are of opinion that the extent of accidental infection is
greatly exaggerated in the public mind, but a few cases occasionally
occur, and the Committee recommend that there should be better
provision of public conveniences, especially for women, and the
U-shaped closet-seat should be adopted. The use of common towels
and drinking-cups in railway-trains, schools, factories, and elsewhere is
condemned not only for the reasons stated above, but on general
sanitary grounds.
SECTION 4.--PREVIOUS INQUIRIES AND CONFERENCES.
After the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act in England in 1886,
various Committees and Royal Commissions, such as the
Inter-departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration