Excerpt from Care and Treatment of Persons Afflicted With Leprosy: Report of the Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine United States Senate on S. 4086, March 25, 1916

The evidence clearly shows that leprosy is a chronic mutilating disease, whose Victims inspire such a horror in the public mind that they are. Ostracized, harried from place to place, at' times being locked up like common criminals, and at others undergoing treat ment which for refinement of cruelty is worse than death itself. It is brought forth clearly that the disease is widespread in the United States to an extent that is little realized. Some of the witnesses testi fied that the disease is on the increase, and all agreed in the statement that segregation is the only effective means for the eradication and prevention of leprosy. The witnesses also unite in agreeing that on humanitarian and economic grounds the only way in which to attack the leprosy problem in the United States is through the erection and maintenance of a national home for lepers. Not only is this the most humane way in which the unfortunate sufferers from a loathsome communicable disease may be treated, but it is also the most economi cal, because the overhead costs of caring for 100 lepers is not very much greater than the overhead cost for caring for 20 lepers. All of the State health officers are in favor of the bill, and it has the official indorsement of the American Dermatological Association, the Ameri can Medic'al Association, the American Academy of Medicine, and the conference of State and Territorial health authorities.

The incubation period of leprosy is very long, sometimes as many as 30 years elapsing between exposure to the disease and the develop ment of symptoms. It is, therefore, practically impossible for the United States to exclude cases at quarantine unless they are in the active stage of the disease. As a result our people are going abroad, particularly to the Orient, becoming infected, returning home, and developing the disease many years afterwards. This is particularly shown with regard to soldiers who have served in the Philippines.

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