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.

    7/172 page 9
    There were 29 cases of Blackwater Fever in Europeans with 4 deaths as against 22 cases with 11 deaths last year. One Native had this disease and recovered. Infectious and Epidemic Diseases. 2,231 cases of Chicken Pox, which is endemic and from time to time epidemic, were recorded with 10 deaths-a high rate of mortality tor this mJ There y®re 439 cases of Small-pox with 74 deaths or a case mortality of 168-0 per 1,000. There were small epidemics of Small-pox throughout the country principally in the Agbor-lshan country as occurred last year. Nothing approaching a serious outbreak of the disease occurred. The incidence of Small-pox is prineipallv confined to the dry season. tj ^ Influenza. The great Pandemic reached Nigeria towards the end of September, raged during October, and declined rather abruptly in November. Imported into Lagos by sea from the Gold Coast, in spite of Herculean efforts on the part of the Sanitary Authorities, it was but a matter of time till the disease had spread all over the country. Calabar was the last to suffer owing to the infrequency of the shipping service between there and ports to windward and the epidemic was at its height there when it had practically died out in Lagos. The epidemic did not present any features different from those observed in other parts of the world unless it was in its severity. Gastro-intestinal types were noted but in the great majority of the cases the brunt of the disease fell upon the respiratory system. All the deaths among Europeans were due to septic broncho-pneumonia. It is difficult to estimate either the incidence of the disease or the mortality. In Lagos, where there is a properly organised Health Department and where registration is compulsory, it is possible to arrive at a vague estimate. From statistics taken from such sources as Prisons, Police Force, West African Frontier Force, and Government employes a case incidence of 50% with a mortality of 5% would probably be a low estimate. Among the poor and intensely ignorant both the incidence and mortality must have been very much higher. It is estimated from the Register of Deaths and a comparison of the death rate during the epidemic with the same periods in previous years, that P5°/o of the population of Lagos died of Influenza. 418 Europeans came under treatment of whom 15 died, a mortality of 3*5%. This is, however, a very low estimate of the incidence of the disease as many suffered in remote districts where Medical aid was not available. Influenza was the cause of invaliding of 9 European Government Officials and the death of 12. 5,887 Natives of all classes were treated for Influenza as in-patients at the hospitals with a mortality of 11%. Dysentery.—Is for the most part of the amoebic variety. Among Europeans the case incidence is practically the same as last year. 40 cases are recorded but this gives but a low estimate of the number who are carriers of the amoeba. Emetine and Alcresta Ipecac have given good results in the treatment. In Natives 920 cases are recorded with a mortality of 1(3*3% against 1,059 with a mortality of 11*2% in 1917. Helminth ic Disea ses. There is nothing unusual to record under this heading.
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