Annual medical and sanitary report / Swaziland.

  • Swaziland. Medical Department.
Date:
[1961]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

    11/124 (page 4)
    CHAPTER I - PUBLIC HEALTH (i) COMMUNICABLE DISEASES. Tuberculosis remains Swaziland’s chief health problem, and the delay in implementing the W.H.O/U.N.I.C.E.F-sponsor- ed control project, for a variety of reasons, is most dis¬ appointing, and it is hoped that the useful discussions held in Swaziland with Mr. Hanson (U.N.I,C.E.E) and Dr. Clement (W.H.O) will hasten matters. It is also disappointing to have to report the closing of the tuberculosis ward at Mahamba Methodist Hospital for financial reasons. Maximum use continues to be made of existing in-patient and out-patient facilities for tuberculosis patients at Government and Mission hospitals and during 1961, figures from these hospitals revealed little change in the position, as a total of 1222 cases of tuberculosis were dealt with, with 76 deaths, as against 1129? with 68 deaths, in I960. In respect of Malaria this report covers the last transmission season - from July I960 to June 1961, and the full accounts of the activities of the Malaria Control Unit of their entomological investigations will be found in the Medical Officer of Health’s report at Appendix II (page 17). Hut-spraying in the eastern portion of Swaziland was again carried out, and surveillance operations continued throughout the year. The position remained satisfactory, but the persistence of small foci of infection, shown by 95 positive blood slides (i.e. 0.6% of the 14,406 indig¬ enous” blood slides examined) create a problem and emphasises the difficulty of proceeding from ’’Malaria Control to ’’Malaria Eradication . It is expected that the problem will be considerably eased when control measures already started in Mozambique become fully effective. The.W.H.O Laboratory Technician seconded to Swaziland to assist^in the training of local microscopists left in February after three months most valuable work here. Further assistance was forthcoming from W.H.O in February when Entomologist R, 0. Larwish arrived in Swaziland, on a 5 months secondment, to study the behaviour of the vector mosquito in Swaziland, which previously appeared to be exophilic and zoophilic. This still appears to be the position in the northern parts of Swaziland, whilst In the South, and especially_in the Big Bend area, the vector appears to feed indiscrimately on man or cattle. Dr. Darwish’s work and assistance was of great value to the Malaria Control Unit staff, and as it was felt that more time should be given to these invest¬ igations, an application was forwarded to W.H.O for the secondment of an entomologist to Swaziland for 12 months, but it has not been possible to make an entomologist avail¬ able. The precipitin testing of mosquito blood meals, which forms such an important part of the entomologist s investigations, is carried out by the Lister Institute ox Preventative Medicine, Elstree. The Bilharzia survey of the Territory was completed during the year and the results of this and of other in— vestigational work carried out will also be found in the Medical Officer of Health’s report in Appendix II, The annual rise in the number of cases of I^J-uenza reported since the Asian Influenza epidemic of 3.957 did not continue into 1961, when the number of cases was 3,679 as against 4,848 in I960, whereas the total number of cases /of acute