Annual report of the Medical Department / Tanganyika Territory.

  • Tanganyika. Medical Department.
Date:
[1951]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Department / Tanganyika Territory. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    institutions, and the keeping of such records is still imperfect in the case of many units. Statistical returns have been received from only a very small number of mission centres and many of these are incomplete. 12. In the field of industrial health there has been progress in the provision of medical facilities for employees. Three fully equipped hospitals were com¬ pleted and occupied and two others were nearing completion by the end of the year. The number of medical practitioners in full or part-time employment in industry increased. 13. The only major outbreaks of serious communicable disease occurring in 1951 were of plague which was reported from four different areas. The first outbreak in Mwanza District early in the year was small and circumscribed but towards the end of the year there were more extensive outbreaks in Same, Mbulu and Singida Districts. These constituted a serious threat in view of a large and inexplicable rise in the rat population throughout the greater part of the territory. Energetic control measures were at once applied and only local spread occurred. By the end of the year control had.been achieved in two of the areas, Same and Mbulu. The dramatic therapeutic value of streptomycin in the treatment of plague was clearly demonstrated by the very low case mortality encountered in these outbreaks in which this drug was extensively used. Serious outbreaks of smallpox were encountered only in the coastal belt of the Eastern and Southern Provinces, and at no time did these give cause for concern. There were sporadic occurrences of this disease elsewhere but none reached significant proportions. The incidence of sleeping sickness showed a further marked decline during the year; the control of population in the infected areas has already been largely re-established, and the risk of any serious epidemic would now seem to be slight. 14. In townships the greater part of the building potential was engaged on low and medium density housing and on commercial and industrial develop¬ ment ; though various high density housing schemes wnre continued and others were begun, the lack of sufficient housing of this type is responsible for much overcrowding and slum development in and around the townships. This is particularly evident among the African population and the poorer sections of the Asian community. In Dar es Salaam and Tanga the housing shortage among Africans is being dealt with by the provision of temporary settlement areas, pending the construction of permanent houses. In Dar es Salaam work was begun on the installation of a main sewage system and extensions were made to water supplies in various townshijas. The provision of adequate supplies of water still remains a serious problem in several of the larger urban areas. 15. The following brief synopsis is intended to give an indication of the extent of the Government medical services during the year. Services provided by the Native Authorities are not included. A more detailed discussion of the various services together with statistical tables follows in later chapters. Dur-