Annual medical and sanitary report / Bechuanaland Protectorate.

  • Bechuanaland Protectorate. Office of the Director of Medical Services.
Date:
[1948]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

    4/18 (page 4)
    1 tr. ,ot endemic in the swai :1PS ■s passing ■ through a r e known s m v c; no 0 been ma ,de5 but 13* Schist* despite the feet to be infected, the presence of the vector of S.mpnsonio (Bionphalaria pfeiffiri) he..3 been recorded.. .It .seems very unlikely that tne swamps do not contain other vectors in common W1 Gil 14. die rest of Southern Africa. Matetsi, on the border of Southern Rhodesia,, is to be an important base in the scheme of development. 'Ihere is a small3 but heavy3 focus of snail infestation and human infection. The opening up of road,, and possibly rail3 communications from this base to Maun5 may well introduce a strain of schistosome from Southern Rhodesia. The epidemiology of yellow fever is3 15. obscure. The possibility of an in the swamps is being explored, of communi cati on p lap mission of vires3 «-v o d U endemic focus occurring jti P'D, - mi. o— j hewev 3 Xs < lines an important part in the trams- that the African circulating the infection over long distances during a A postulating virus may carry favourable season. That the disease has occurred in Ngamiland has be mi proved by biological investigation^ and it requires 11c flight of imagination to appreciate the danger to urban centres infected with Aedes aegypti. 15. These few examples suffice to underline the problems inherent in the economic development that is now tcting plcice. hiiciii j.u3-_l deve_L.opmeno hos been achieved* these problems should no longer exist. In the inhering however3 there is the opportunity to plan wisely and far-sightedly. 17. The good rainfall experienced during the 1947 ~ IS48 season resulted in good crops and a plentiful supply of food.. There was an appreciable drop in the incidence of deficiency diseases as recorded during the year. This is a point or considerable significmice. If one good season will produce such results., then the relation of a sound agricultural economy to improved standards of health assumes importance of the first magnitude. 18* Reference has been made in a previous annual report3 (Annual Hedical and Sanitary Report 1946) to the disturbance of the family economy consequent upon the absence of migrant labourers fer consider Sole periods of Th °rctecto ate is of c onsider-ble on tne ev this development fit manpower is Giie year. me development and for essential. ^ Therefore* a measure of first importance to the.public health is the energetic development of the agriculture1 pclicy reccmmended for the tnbal a reas . In •X 1 n * - this^fashion only* can the prevailing standards of sub- nutrition be _combated* The reduced manpower available for food production locally would then be better equip methods3 and would be o •Kn for more efficient agricultural undoubtedly less . pat me tic. The results achieved by Pioneer labour during the last war was a startling cbjo^ nl5SOxl ^ne benefits of sound basic diet in relation to efxcrt and apathy. ct IS* The furtherance of any policy cf this• naturea however3 is dependent on the desire cf the community as whole for its benefits. It is'obvious thaw this can only o c,. bo -cnievoc. tnreugn c_i o meciium of health education of that section / • » •