Experiments to investigate the infectivity of Glossina palpalis fed on sleeping sickness patients under treatment / by Sir David Bruce [and others].
- Date:
- [1911]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Experiments to investigate the infectivity of Glossina palpalis fed on sleeping sickness patients under treatment / by Sir David Bruce [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![[Reprinted from the PROCEEDINGS OF THE Roya Society, B. Vol. 83] Experiments to Investigate the Infectwity of Glossina palpalis Fed on Sleeping Sickness Patients under Treatment. By Colonel Sir Davin Bruce, C.B. F.RS., A.M.S.; Captains A. E. Hamerton, D.S.0., and H. R. Bateman, R.A.M.C. (Sleeping Sickness Commission of the Royal Society Uganda, 1908-10); and Dr. R. van SOMEREN, Uganda Medical Staff. (Received November 23, 1910,—Read February 2, 1911.) Introduction. It is well known that there are cases of Sleeping Sickness in man which, under treatment, may enjoy long periods of apparent good health. In these cases the individual is often able to live an active life, and insists on being at liberty to go about as he pleases. In Uganda care is taken to prevent such cases entering the fly-areas; but the difficulty in maintaining a supervision strict enough to check cccasional visits to these areas is obviously great, and in other countries may be insuperable, so that the question as to how drug treatment can influence the infectivity of these patients to the fly may be considered to be of importance. Other points arise from the consideration of this question, viz.:—Can one or more doses of a trypanocidal drug render a Sleeping Sickness patient non-infective to Glossina palpalis? Does prolonged treatment during any stage of the disease render cases of Sleeping Sickness innocuous to the fly ? If it be proved that the treatment of Sleeping Sickness patients by certain drugs does not prevent them infecting Glossina palpalis, then what per- centage of cases give a positive result? and what percentage of flies are infected from these cases, as compared with the number of flies infected from untreated cases ? To answer these questions it is necessary to classify under various headings the patients who are the subjects of this paper; to state whether treated or untreated; if the latter, to give details concerning the nature of the treatment, the duration of treatment, and the total quantity of drugs received. The presence or absence of 7rypanosoma gambiense in the blood or lymph glands of each patient should also be noted. The classification of patients, according to the stage of the disease in which they present themselves, is that adopted by Dr. A. D. P. Hodges, C.M.G., Principal Medical Officer, Uganda, in the “ Progress Report on the Uganda Sleeping Sickness Camps.” from December, 1906, to November 30, 1908.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b3343282x_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
