Annual report on the Medical Research Institute / 1909-.

  • Nigeria. Medical Research Institute.
Date:
[1923]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the Medical Research Institute / 1909-. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/34 (page 9)
    RELAPSING FEVER. Relapsing fever made its reappearance in Lagos during the year. The sole previous authenticated record of its occurrence was in 1910, when, on July 23rd, spironemata were found, at this Institute, in the blood smear from a native patient in the Colonial Hospital at Lagos. It is true that on rare occasions since that date, cases of “ Relapsing Fever” have been reported both in Europeans and in natives, from the Northern as well as from the Southern Provinces of Nigeria, but the diagnosis was not based on findings at this laboratory. It is possible that what was really meant was the relapsing type of malarial fever. Fortunately the outbreak in 1923 was a small one. The first case was diagnosed on 11th July, the second on 12th September, the third on 13th September, the fourth on 15th September, the fifth on- 19th October, the sixth on 9th November and the seventh on 27th November. Five of these seven cases were diagnosed during life, and all recovered under treatment in hospital. The remaining two were both admitted to hospital in a moribund state and the diagnosis was made from post¬ mortem findings. Cases (1), (3) and (4) all received a single dose of Salvarsan. Cases (5) and ((3) were given a single dose of Novarsenobillon with happy results, although in Case (5) it was not administered until a relapse had occurred. Excluding Cases (2) and (7) in which death took place a few hours after admission to hospital, the clinical course of the disease presented no unusual features. Prostration was marked and there was intense headache, with general bod}^ pains. The spleen was moderately enlarged in all the cases. In connection with the much larger outbreak of the disease in the Gold Coast, it is interesting to note that five of Lagos cases occurred in ‘;Zabarumas,” or, as they are called in the Gold Coast Report “Zabramahs,” a people inhabiting the hinterland to the north of Nigeria. The first case, however, was that of a labourer belonging to the Public Works Department, who for five years previously had never been out of Lagos. The causative organism, a Spironema, was readily found in all the cases. In five instances, only one smear was obtained, in one case blood films were taken on three successive days and in another, films were made on four successive days. In its morphology and in its behaviour in laboratory animals, the spironema agrees closely with that described in the Gold Coast epidemic. Twenty organisms in each smear, with the exception of one case in which only a very few spironemata were found in a spleen-smear made post-mortem, were drawn with the aid of the camera-1 ucida and afterwards measured by compass. The details of these are set out below. Case (lb Yesufu. Male. Age about thirty years. Labourer. The shortest was 13*5 microns, the longest 27 microns and the average length 17*5 microns. Case (2). Isa. Male. Age about thirty years. Carrier. The shortest was 7*5 microns, the longest 19*5 microns, and the average length was 13 microms. It should be noted that the smear from which these measure¬ ments were taken, was made from the brain, post-mortem. Case 3). Yahaya. Male. About twenty-two years of age. Carrier. 13/9/23. Shortest 13 microns, longest 295 microns, average 20 microns. 14/9/23. Shortest 12 microns, longest 23*5 microns, average 16 microns. 15/9/23. Shortest 11 microns, longest 26 microns, average 19 microns.