Annual report of the Sarawak Government Medical Department.

  • Sarawak. Medical Department.
Date:
[1965]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Sarawak Government Medical Department. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    export duty levied on rubber and pepper. There are also large and important forest reserves, and timber production ranks after agriculture as the most important economic activity carried on in Sarawak. The principal minerals known to occur in Sarawak are bauxite, now the main mineral export, oil which has been produced from the Miri oilfields for fifty-four years, but which is now decreasing in quantity, gold in small quantities, and coal. The last named is known to occur in payable quantities, but so far, lack of communications has discouraged its exploitation. The new road from Kuching to Simanggang passes within reasonable distance of one known coalfield, and this may encourage its development. 8. The staple diet of the population is rice, but the actual production of rice in Sarawak is inadequate for its needs, and approximately half of the country’s requirements is imported, mainly from Siam. Other food crops such as tapioca, maize, yams, and sweet potatoes are used to supplement rice in the rural areas. A noticeable feature of the agricultural economy is the small number of livestock, and the almost entire absence of mixed farming. The few small herds of cattle which exist are mainly confined to the sandy coastal area, although buffaloes are moderately plentiful in the Fifth Division. The only classes of livestock kept in significant numbers are pigs and poultry. 9. Sarawak is a relatively healthy country by tropical standards. Bilharziasis, yellow fever, louse-borne typhus, plague and relapsing fever are not encountered nor has there been a case of smallpox for many years. Until 1961 cholera had not been reported for a great many years, but in that year, and recurrently in 1964 and 1965 outbreaks of cholera “El-Tor” have occurred. Due to the poor standard of environmental sanitation, however, dysentery and the enteric diseases continued to occur in distressingly large numbers. Leprosy is prevalent also, and endemic goitre occurs in the interior. 10. The policy of the Government in the field of public health, as enunciated in 1960, is as follows: — “Believing that good health is one of the most important assets of any community, it is the policy of Government to promote the health of all the people of Sarawak in so far as its financial resources will permit. This will be achieved by: (a) protecting the community against the common communicable diseases, by free protective vaccination and inoculation, and by such other methods as may be available from time to time; (b) educating the public in matters concerning the preservation of health and the avoidance of disease; (c) encouraging the establishment of maternal and child health services as a means of maintaining the health of mothers and children; (d) maintaining hospital and dispensary services for the effective treat¬ ment of the sick and injured; (e) advising district councils in their efforts to improve the sanitary and living conditions of the people; (f) providing a dental service complementary to the private practitioner service, with particular emphasis on the care of children.”