Report on the public health / Southern Rhodesia.

  • Southern Rhodesia. Department of Health.
Date:
[1929]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the public health / Southern Rhodesia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/88 (page 19)
    bilharzia infection is more prevalent than is commonly believed there is little doubt, and the warnings that have been broadcast regarding the danger of bathing in streams and rivers throughout the Colony should be taken more seriously to heart and acted upon. During the year a report on bilharzia infection of the native children attending the American Mission school at Old Umtali was investigated by the Government Medical Officer of the district, when it was found that the natives attending the girls’ school were heavily infected, whilst the boys attending the boys’ school, who had a separate bathing place, escaped. The stream in which the girls bathe being the only one infected. Bilharzia haematobium is the variety most commonly found in Southern Rhodesia, and infection of Sch. mansoni, though met with, is uncommon. There wTere 7 European and 16 native cases admitted to general hospitals for treatment for this complaint during the year. Leprosy.—The Government Leper Settlement at Gomohuru was placed this year, for the first time, under the charge of a resident medical super¬ intendent, the officer appointed being Dr. Moiser, who came to us with considerable previous experience in leprosy on the West Coast of Africa. The appointment to date has been more than justified, and the lepers at the settlement are now under the systematic treatment and care of their own medical officer. There are two other leper treatment centres, namely, one in connection with the Swedish Mission at Mnene and the other at Mtoko. The numbers of cases under treatment at these various institutions during the year were as follows: — Gomohuru . 257 Mnene . 7S Mtoko . 173 508 The reports received on the results of treatment were, on the whole, satisfactory, especially as regards the relief of symptoms, the healing of open sores, and the general improvement in condition. Almost all the patients testify to an increase of strength and a general feeling of well¬ being whilst under treatment. With regard to the number of permanent cures effected, here the results are not quite so definite, but it is too soon yet to draw any conclusion, and we are not in a position to say more than that the results to date are promising. The introduction of the use of Alepol in addition to, or in place of, Hydnocreol has given satisfaction, and is now the drug most in use at all treatment centres. The proportion of voluntary admissions to these leper institutions is on the increase, and this has been made a reason for urging certain alterations in our leprosy repression laws, which would allow of more freedom of movement to declared lepers, with the ultimate object of abolition of com¬ pulsory segregation. I do not think, however, that either public opinion or the lepers themselves, most of whom are indigenous natives living a communal life in their kraals, are educated to that pitch which would admit of such drastic reform, nor are the results of treatment sufficiently con¬ clusive to allow of it being said that infective cases can be turned into non-infective within any definite period of time, and this is in spite of claims which have been advanced in all honesty, I believe, by certain people who are deeply interested in the control and eradication of leprosy in the British Empire and who are generously devoting their lives and their resources to this object. The voluntary treatment centre at Mtoko, which is purely experimental, has not been in existence on its present basis for a sufficiently long time for us to say whether voluntary as against compulsory segregation of native lepers is the proper course to adopt in dealing with an ignorant and illiterate people leading an entirely communal existence, and it is doubtful if any satisfactory answer can be given to this till there has been in operation for