Report on the prevention of malaria in Cyprus / by Sir Ronald Ross ; presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of His Majesty.

  • Ross, Ronald, Sir, 1857-1932.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report on the prevention of malaria in Cyprus / by Sir Ronald Ross ; presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of His Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Mosquito nets and wire gauze may be strongly recommended for Cyprus in public notices, but they will only be used there, as elsewhere, by the more well-to-do classes. On the whole, therefore, Cyprus is most suitable for a pretty thorough mosquito reduction combined with a certain amount of quinine distribution, especially in the schools. 13. Suggestions.—The conduct of future operations against malaria can be left with confidence to the Medical Department of Cyprus. I may, however, be perhaps allowed to make a few small suggestions. (1) At first the operations can be commenced most actively in the most malarious villages and also in the largest of the malarious ones. Obviously, money spent in such will affect a larger number of people than the same money spent in small or in only slightly malarious areas. Another claim for speedy action is the facility with which local conditions can be dealt with. (2) Quinine distribution should be pushed with the greatest vigour amongst school children, especially those with enlarged spleen; and it may be useful to encourage school masters to give the drug and also to show them how to do it. It was suggested to me that quinine can also be distributed by rnudirs, muktars, tithe superintendents, tax collectors, police, and the priests and schoolmasters of the villages, besides the Medical Officers, the Sanitary Inspectors and the dispensers, but I do not know how far all these suggestions will be found to be practicable. (3) The tracts on malaria prevention for the public can be issued again with advantage to all the schools. Chapter 2 of my book on “The Prevention of Malaria” has been specially written for this purpose; I do not know whether it would be worth while translating it into Greek. The Greek Anti-malaria League also issues many pamphlets, and perhaps the Medical Department would like to obtain copies of these from thePresident of the League, Professor Dr. Savas, “ Laboratoire D’Hygiene,” Universite, Athens. (4) Arrangements might be made for distributing gold-fish, with printed directions in Greek and Turkish, to all owners of irrigation cisterns. (5) Considerable difficulty is likely to be experienced with the wells, and these should be carefully examined in July and August for larvte, with a view to finding the best way of destroying the insects in them. (6) During the whole of my tour I saw only three large waters which will be a danger to the Island. These were the deep lake to the west of Famagusta, the marsh to the west of Limassol, and the marsh close to Syrianochorio. The first is below sea-level and cannot be drained or filled up. Even to cut the weeds round the margin and deepen the edges would be a very expensive work. I doubt, however, whether this lake really influences the malaria-rate in Famagusta or Yarosia, because the peasants living to the west of the town, who would lie first visited by mosquitoes from the lake, do not appear to be suffering particularly from malaria. I do not advise any