Annual medical report / Colony and Protectorate of Kenya.

  • Kenya. Medical Department.
Date:
[1926]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual medical report / Colony and Protectorate of Kenya. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    109/138 (page 95)
    b- Research. The following articles have been published during 1926 by members of the Laboratory Staff in the Journal noted :— \V. H. Kauntze.—The Laboratory in Relation to Medical Practice in Kenya (Kenya Medical Journal, Vol. II., p. 509). T. C. Cochrane and G. V. Allen.—A rare form of Plasmodium Vivax, (Kenya Medical Journal, Vol. II., p. 344.) J. C. J. Callanan.—boodstuffs of the Luo Tribe, (Kenya Medical Journal, Vol. III., p. 56.) J. C. J. Callanan.—S ome observations on Framboesia Tropica, made in a district of Kikuyu Province, Kenya Colony, (Kenya Medical Journal, Vol. III., p. 62.) C. B. Symes.— I he Mosquito Problem in Kenya (Kenya Medical Journal, Vol. III., p. 93.) F. C. Kelly.-—Recent Advances in Biochemistry, (Kenya Medical Journal, Vol. III., p. 104.) J. C. J. Callanan.—Embedomoras Intestinalis in a Kisii Native, (Kenya Medical Journal, Vol. III., p. 170.) j. C. J. Callanan.—A Side-Light on the Production of P. Tenue (Stephens), (Kenya Medical Journal, Vol. III., p. 102.) F. C. Kelly.—The Purification of Water polluted by Sisal Effluent, (Kenya Medical Journal, Vol. III., p. 212.) R. Hunter.—Experiments on the use of Rat Poisons, (Kenya Medical Journal, Vol. III., p. 223.) G. V. Allen.—A Comparison of the Garrow and Dreyer Techniques in Agglutination, (Kenya Medical Journal, Vol. III., p. 245.) Investigations into Trypanosomiasis, Malaria, Yaws, Plague, Intestinal Worms, and the influence of diet on disease have been initiated or continued during 1926. (a) Trypamosomiasis. The work which has been carried on by the Medical Entomologist who has been investigating this disease, is detailed under the work of the Entomological Section. It has mainly consisted of the continuance of observation of the tsetse fly areas which were mapped out during 1925. From the purely Labora¬ tory aspect a certain amount of research has been conducted by the inoculation of various animals with strains of Trypansomes derived from Tanganyika Territory through the courtesy of Dr. Corson, Assistant Bacteriologist of that Territory, who is stationed at Musoma. In all, four strains have been received from this source, and a series of transmission experiments has been initiated and is still in progress. So far it is impossible to detail the results of these experi¬ ments, but some conclusions should be available during the coming year. An endeavour has been made by the Medical Entomologist to determine the food hosts of the tsetse fly by serological tests. Up to the present no definite conclu¬ sions have been obtained. (b) Malaria. Most of the work that has been carried on during 1926 on this subject has been done by the Medical Entomologist, and his results are recorded under the report of the Section of Medical Entomology. Not only has the district between Nairobi and Fort Hall been kept under observation, but data as to mosquito distribution has been obtained from other areas, notably Nakuru, Kisii and Mombasa. With the advent of a second Entomologist it is hoped in 1928 to cnlaro-e the area from which data are being obtained, as the advantage of the increase in staff will not be felt in 1927 owing to the Senior Entomologist’s departure on leave. A group of Kavirondo natives on an estate a few miles from Nairobi has been kept under observation during the year. Blood examina¬ tions have been made of those boys at regular intervals. Up to the time of writino- the results obtained have been somewhat contradictory to conclusions which‘were drawn in previous years and suggest that the examination of a single s'ide from a case of malaria is of comparatively little use, and also that, at any rate in Africans, the presence of malarial parasites in the blood even in consider¬ able numbers, does not necessarily give rise to symptoms even of malaize. The difficulty of estimating the relative amount of incapacity due to malaria and to intestinal parasites is almost insurmountable under the conditions in which these boys live. LInfortunately the promise on which this investigation was begun on the Sisal estate in question, of being able to treat natives found infected with intestinal parasites, has not materialized, and at the end of the year we are still in the position of finding malaria parasites and intestinal worms without any