Annual medical and sanitary report / Swaziland.

  • Swaziland. Medical Department.
Date:
[1953]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

    17/100 (page 7)
    - 7 - 195*. y-.-—*-- , „ ■ M ■ - Field Staff. -nn- Laboratoryv ' January 82 0 February 104 1 March 52 0 April 39 1 May 20 0 June 0 0 July 0 0 August 6 0 September 5 0 October 13 0 November 8 , 0 December 6 0 Total 335 2 1952 81 0 1951 181 k 1950 798 29 (Note (x) = microscopic¬ ally diag¬ nosed. The cost of spraying operations during the last season amounted to l/3d. Per hut or l/~-gd. per head of population per annum, and these figures compare very favourably with those of Mauritius (3/-) and the Transvaal (2/6d.). Apart from abnormal climatic conditions, the unusually high incidence of malaria during the 1952/53 transmission season is ascribed to the following factors;- (i) The absence of control measures in African compounds and in the kraals of squatters on European farms, (ii) Absence of control measures in the huts of squatters on Crown Land, (iii) Absence or inadequacy of control measures in certain Native Areas in the southern part of the territory, (iv) The conditions arising from the construction of dams and irrigation canals and the cultivation of crops under irrigation, (v) The spraying squads inability to treat all huts in their areas within the period between vector-breeding and malaria transmission under epidemic conditions, in the absence of suitable mechanical transport. Experience gained during the last transmission season has confirmed the fact that malaria tends to assume epidemic proportions in Swaziland and the adjoining territories at intervals of seven years, emphasised the dangers associated with irrigation projects and the inadequacy of anti¬ adult measures alone under such conditions, indicated the need for the institution of routine control measures in normal years on all premises, including European farms, in malarious areas, and demonstrated the necessity for intensifying and increasing the rapidity of spraying operations by employing mechanised spraying squads, when epidemic conditions obtain. It has, therefore, become evident that unless effective steps are taken to rectify the deficiencies in our malaria control system, all prospects of being able to relax anti-malaria measures in the future would have to be abandoned, and that the danger of the recurrent reappearance of epidemic conditions at intervals amongst a community with a lowered immunity could not be eliminated. The following extensions of the Malaria Control Programme were therefore/... ...