Quarterly report on the progress of segregation camps and medical treatment of sleeping sickness in Uganda. For the quarter December 1st, 1907-February 29th, 1908 / A. C. H. Gray. With an introduction by A. D. P. Hodges.

  • Hodges, A. D. P.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Quarterly report on the progress of segregation camps and medical treatment of sleeping sickness in Uganda. For the quarter December 1st, 1907-February 29th, 1908 / A. C. H. Gray. With an introduction by A. D. P. Hodges. 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.

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    The method of giving the drug remains as described iu a previous report. Our Medical Officers find it advisable to give the solution warm, and care is taken to well rub tlie place of injection afterwards. A solution of Atoxyl should be perfectly colourless when made up and when used, and it should keep practically colourless for 24 hours. Atoxyl which does not come up to this standard is rejected by our Medical Officers for the reason that the yellowness is due to free Aniline, and the result of injecting it in large dose.s has often been bad. All our jMedical Officers express themselves as satisfied with the Atoxyl they are at present using. Atoxyl and ]\Iercury treatment has been very extensively used of late at all our camps, and the details of its administration have differed at each camp. The details of these methods are seen on the four tables Nos. XXI- XXVI. Dr. van Someren, the Medical Superintendent of the Kyagwe Camp, has perhaps had more experience of this Atoxyl and ^Mercury treatment than anybody else. He says, when reporting on his results at the end of Februarv, 1908:— “ I am, on the whole, very disappointed with the subsecpient results of the combined simultaneous method of giving Atoxyl and Mercury which I have been using up to the present. Unless my results are markedly superior to those from the other camps I would suggest that it be abandoned as a routine treatment. For the first three months my results ^^ere and again this time are good, but patients seem to fall off considerably during the next cpiarter, so I doubt that if in the end the results are a bit better than with Atoxyl alone.” Unfortunately this has been the experience of all our Medical Officers irrespective of the method of treatment employed. As will be seen from the tables of last year’s eases and from the admissions from the last quarter, Dr. van Someren’s results are rather better than any obtained at the other camps. Dr. van Someren says in the same report: “The interruption in treatment during November and December, 1907, due to the uncertain effects of the Atoxyl with which we were supplied, has been most un- fortunate, and I regret that relapses have been somewhat numerous; whether these relapsed cases will pick up again or not it is impossible to say, but the check to progress seems to be considerable and tends to emphasise the value of Atoxyl in this condition and the necessity for prolonged regular treatment. I have attempted to reduce the number of injections per patient partly for the sake of bringing the camp better within one’s scope, but chiefly owing to the more extensive use I am making of Mercury com- bined with Atoxyl, the patients naturally dennuTing to frequent injections. I am inclined to think that four injections of Atoxyl a month xvill prove inadequate, and we shall have to return to the previous 10 days’ interval. An accident showed me that Mercury perchloride can be borne in a dose approximating to 1 grain with practically no symptoms.