Annual report of the Medical Department / Uganda Protectorate.

  • Uganda Protectorate. Medical Department.
Date:
[1950]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Department / Uganda Protectorate. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/56 (page 10)
    A review of quantities of materials used for the control and treatment of malaria showed that in a period of twelve months nearly 30,000 gallons of anti-malarial oil were issued, the three most important towns, Kampala, Entebbe and Jinja, each receiving about 20% of the total. The value of anti-malarial drugs issued was in excess of ^12,000. Relapsing fever.—The majority of cases reported from Mengo and Busoga Districts occurred in immigrant labourers from the southwest, and it is probable that infections have often gone undiagnosed. It is said that some tribes carefully preserve the infected Ornithodorus present in their rolls of bedding and encourage them to feed, so as to maintain their own immunity. Table 9 Cases of Relapsing Fever reported District 1948 1949 1950 Western Province— Ankole 349 327 393 Kigezi 37 18 40 Toro 22 24 43 Bunyoro 1 2 5 Buganda Province— Masaka 161 105 170 Mengo 10 50 70 Mubende ... 11 2 3 Eastern Province— Busoga 2 33 1 Mbale • • • 5 • • • Other districts ... I 2 Total Cases Reported 594 566 727 Admitted to hospital 346 3d Deaths in hospital 8 11 12 Trypanosomiasis.—Seventy-eight cases with six deaths were reported during 1950, compared with 54 cases in 1948 and 104 in 1949. In the Northern and Western Provinces, where the disease is almost entirely of thtgambiense type, the fall in incidence which has been evident during recent years has continued; around the shores of Lake Victoria, where the disease is of the rhodesiense type, it has not proved so amenable to control. There is still uncertainty about the insect vector responsible for some of the outbreaks of rhodesiense infection, but pallidipes-infested country presents the greatest danger. Buvuma Island has become a serious problem, and Glossina pallidipes has been found to be more widely spread than was at first believed. A scheme of voluntary evacuation with government assistance was inaugurated in order to minimise contact between man and fly, but this scheme has shown little sign of achieving its object. The island remains a potential source of T. rhodesiense for the adjacent mainland. A game reservoir, widespread tsetse vectors, a relatively poor soil and a small but tenacious human population combine to create a troublesome situation^ and a source of danger to other regions. The boundaries of the restricted area in Busoga were amended to conform with the county boundary. More extensive clearings have been