Title: War Surgery and Medicine

Author: Stout, T. Duncan M.

Publication details: Historical Publications Branch, 1954, Wellington

Part of: The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945

This text is the subject of: ‘Something of Them Is Here Recorded’: Official History in New Zealand

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Treatment in New Zealand of Ex-overseas Invalids

In most of the cases of skin disease returned to New Zealand the cause was the tendency of the lesions of the individuals concerned to become chronic under the climatic conditions. In New Zealand their condition was naturally much improved and subsequent treatment was more or less in line with civilian cases and general civilian practice.

Prognosis: From experience of pensions cases since the war it has been necessary to revise the optimistic prognosis, often given overseas, that eruptions would clear on return to New Zealand and removal from military conditions. It has turned out that in many of these cases military life has merely pulled the trigger, and that non-specific sensitivity has kept the disease going as a chronic disorder. The psychological stresses of rehabilitation, replacing those of active service, have undoubtedly contributed to this chronicity.