Annual report / Department of Public Health, Research Institute and Endemic Diseases Hospital.

  • Egypt. Maṣlaḥat al-Ṣiḥḥah al-ʻUmūmīyah. Research Institute and Endemic Diseases Hospital.
Date:
[1936]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report / Department of Public Health, Research Institute and Endemic Diseases Hospital. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/88 (page 18)
    flow of water in the new canal and to prevent the snails from settling and breeding. Palliative measures have to be applied until the new scheme is completed. These are :— (a) Cleaning and deepening the canal by removing the mud and weeds from the bottom and sides. This will create a good current and washes off the remaining snails. (b) The permanent closure of the latrines of the mosque. The drain of the mosque has to be removed, so as to restrict the chances of infecting the snails which may survive the former measures. B.—Prevention A visit to the village Kashda (Dakhla Oasis) was made in February 1936 to re-examine the population for urinary Schistosomiasis and to report on the snail fauna of the locality, in order to see if there were any Bilharzia carriers in the streams of the village. Previous measures in the form of treating the streams with four parts per million of copper sulphate and filling up the stream harbouring the snails, were taken in 1930 ; the population were treated in 1926 and 1928. For the examination, the population is divided into three categories:— (1) Out of the persons treated twice with tarter emetic in 1926 and 1928, sixty were examined and twenty-six showed the ova in their urines“(PPper'cent). This high proportion was due to both' relapse's and to reinfection during the period from 1928 to 1930. (2) Out of those treated once only two hundred and twenty wepe examined and fifty-eight were positive (26 per cent). . 7. (3) Out of seventy children born after 1930, the date in which the preventive measures were, taken, none showed any ova in the urine, although they frequented all the streams for bathing. ‘v (4) Traps in the form of banana and palm-leaves were introduced into all the streams of the village to catch their snails. Examination revealed only Melania tuberculata in most of the streams and Limnea sp. in one stream only. Bulinus was completely absent in all the streams of the village. The result of this examination confirmed the find¬ ings of the urinary investigation of the children born in 1930, and shows the success of the measures which were taken in this isolated locality. It is remarkable tliat both the treatment of the population and the eradication of the snail carriers have improved the general health and working capacity of the inhabitants in such manner, that • V - '_