Report of the Advisory Committee for the Tropical Diseases Research Fund for the year(s) 1911 to 1914.

  • Great Britain. Advisory Committee for the Tropical Diseases Research Fund.
Date:
1912-1915
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Advisory Committee for the Tropical Diseases Research Fund for the year(s) 1911 to 1914. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    20/942 (page 12)
    the work available for them so extensive, that it may be some time before any detailed investigations can be made in this direction. Kala Azar is not known to exist in the Colony. (c) There are no records available as to the number of persons examined for filarial diseases alone, but the blood of every patient admitted to a hospital here, whose temperature is above normal, is submitted to microscopical examination, and many of these blood smears are taken between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. (d) During the year several of the mountain streams, which form anopheles pools, were trained, at a cost of $30,628. This work goes on continuously, a vote being taken each year for the purpose. (e) All the European district sanitary inspectors and the scavenging inspectors (seventeen in number), and also the European rural police, who act as sanitary inspectors in the villages, pay special attention to the prevention of the breeding of mosquitoes in and around dwellings, and there are also small gangs of coolies who are engaged in house to house cleansing work in the native quarters during the morning and spend their afternoons in clearing brushwood in the neighbourhood of dwellings, collecting old pots and other receptacles for water from the hillsides and waste lands, oiling pools, and in other anti-malarial work, under the direction of the European inspectors. About 50 men are employed in this manner, including native foremen. (/) The amount of quinine issued free during the year was as follows : — Government hospitals ... ... ... ... 2,300 oz. Tung Wah hospitals ... ... ... ... ... 400 ,, Alice Memorial and affiliated hospitals ... .... 240 ,, Public dispensaries ... ... • ■ • ... • • • 712 ,, Total 3,652 oz. (g) Quinine has not hitherto been distributed in the schools, but it is proposed to institute such method of distribution during 1911. {h) There are no estates employing indentured labour. (i) The question of housing is dealt with very fully by the Public Health and Building Ordinances—a consolidated copy of these Ordinances is attached for refer- ence. (j) Anti-malarial measures were first inaugurated in this Colony in 1899, and the effect of these measures can be gauged from the following table of admissions for malaria to the two large hospitals during the period 1901 to 1910 inclusive. The following table shows the admissions for malaria to our two largest hospi- tals during the past ten years: — Government Civil Hospital. Tung Wah Hospital. Total. Case-mortality per cent. Year. Admissions. Deaths. Admissions. Deaths. Admissions. Deaths. Govern- ment Civil Hospital. Tung- Wah Hospital. 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 787 349 347 221 266 233 247 282 188 340 10 9 2 2 6 7 8 3 1 5 507 403 221 212 153 248 305 355 396 602 122 119 61 56 48 96 87 93 87 186 1,294 762 568 433 419 481 552 637 584 942 132 128 63 58 54 103 95 96 89 191 1- 3 2- 6 0-6 0- 9 2- 2 3- 0 3-2 1- 0 0- 5 1- 5 24-1 29- 5 27- 6 26-4 31-4 38-5 28- 5 26-2 21-9 30- 9 Only 71 of the 186 deaths at the Tung Wah Hospital during 1910 were adniitted under Western treatment, and most of these patients were comatose on admission. It will be observed that there was a marked increase in the number of admissions for malaria during 1910, and this is attributed by some to increased building activity in districts in which the nullahs had not yet been trained, and by others to a greater uniformity in the rainfall during 1910, that is to say, that there was an almost daily succession of small showers during the rainy season, sufficient to keep the breeding