The fight against trypanosomiasis : the British contribution.

  • Great Britain. Central Office of Information. Reference Division.
Date:
1962
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The fight against trypanosomiasis : the British contribution. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE FUTURE The great increase in knowledge of the tsetse fly and of the diseases it carries which has taken place in the past sixty years, and the many medical and scientific advances in combating tsetse problems have led both to a lessening in the travity of the tsetse fly menace and to a gradual reassessment of its nature. | While \leeping sickness is still endemic in East and West Africa, control measures are keeping the disease well in hand, and, according to recent reports, in some afeas the incidence is so low that it is not easy to give medical staff practical training in the treatment and handling of actual cases. Disease control measures are more difficult to apply to cattle, since they range over wide areas and are a great deal more vulnerable to trypanosomiasis than man. Yet here, too, advances in treatment and prophylaxis have substan- tially reduced the incidence of disease, while the use of insecticides and clearance schemes have increased the safe areas for grazing cattle. Increasing ascendancy over the disease and increasing knowledge of the biology and habits of the tsetse fly have led to the emergence of a new attitude in which the problem is seen as part of the whole subject of economic develop- ment in Africa. The new knowledge is beginning to be used not only as a defence against tsetse and disease but as a weapon in a policy of advance into tsetse-infested country to open up new areas for agricultural development. Most Commonwealth countries in Africa now permit tsetse clearance schemes to be undertaken only as part of their general land policy, and the idea of actually encouraging settlement in tsetse areas, while providing adequate safe- guards, is gaining ground. Not all authorities are agreed on the best methods of attack on the trypanosomiasis problem. Indeed, there are no two areas in which the problem itself is identical. But it seems probable that the solution will ultimately be brought about by the utilisation of all existing knowledge to combine tsetse control with the establishment of progressive and efficient land utilisation schemes over ever-increasing areas. In the meantime it is expected that British scientists will continue to play an important part in the research and experimental work upon which active control measures are based.