Annual medical and sanitary report / Nigeria.

  • Nigeria. Medical Department.
Date:
[1918]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual medical and sanitary report / Nigeria. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/172 (page 22)
    33. Chicken Pox.—The total number of cases treated were 2,231. The disease is fairly general throughout the country. It occurred at Onitsha, Enugu, Warri and Forcados and many other places in the Eastern Province. In Lagos 39 cases were admitted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital. 34. Cholera.—Fortunately this disease has not been introduced into the country. 35. Cerebospinal Fever.—Four cases are reported as treated, with three deaths. 36. Beri Beri.—Thirteen eases were admitted for treatment with one death. 37. Tetanus.—During 1918 twenty-live cases were treated with 11 deaths, a case mortality of 44%. Tetanus. 1907. 1903. 1909. 1910. 1911. 1912. 1913. 1914. 1915. 1916. 1917. 1918. Gases ... 29 26 27 29 25 29 24 46 33 34 19 25 Deaths Mortality 10 11 15 ? 16 15 12 23 12 17 7 11 per cent. 31‘5 42-3 55-5 9 64 51 50 50 36 50 36 44 The foregoing figures do not comprise deaths certified as due to Tetanus by private practitioners in Lagos, where the total certified deaths from Tetanus amount to 29 as compared to 22 in 1917. 38. Rabies.—No cases recorded. 39. Venereal Diseases.—The following figures shew the cases treated for Gonorrhoea and Syphilis. Venereal Disease. 1907. 1908. 1909. 1910. 1911. 1912. 1913. 1914. 1915. 1916. 1917. 1918. Gonorrhoea Syphilis ... 1,174 224 1,521 214 1,637 176 1,977 171 1,785 269 1,991 303 1,913 202 1,605 215 1,669 266 2,482 400 2,449 371 1,685 278 This fall in the figures given for 1918 is by no means indicative of the degree of prevalence and as, in the case of other diseases, figures for Venereal Diseases participate in “the decline in the incidence of all diseases ” as stated in the general remarks on Public Health which forms the opening paragraph of the medical section of this Annual Report. 40. Leprosy.—106 cases of Leprosy were treated with 22 deaths as compared to 114 cases treated in 1917. The segregation of lepers as a preventive measure to be of value must be effective and universal. To inaugurate and maintain such segregation money and supervi¬ sion are essential. Under present conditions of shortage of officers in both the Political and Medical services it is hardly expedient to tax their energies by adding to their burdens.