Report on the Medical and Sanitary Departments / Government of the Gold Coast.

  • Gold Coast. Medical Department
Date:
[1934]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the Medical and Sanitary Departments / Government of the Gold Coast. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    33/98 (page 17)
    (e) Dysentery. 78. The group of diseases included in the description “ dysentery, diarrhoea and enteritis ” occupied the third place amongst the killing diseases, being responsible for 7-8 per centum of all registered deaths. In the 31 registration districts the death-rate per 100,000 living persons amounted to 64. 79. The fact that the majority of patients suffer from the amoebic form is, possibly, indicative of infection being fly- or food-borne rather than water-borne. 80. Experiments are being undertaken on a large scale to ascertain whether, in the absence of a water-carriage system which would cost about a quarter of a million sterling for Accra alone, pan latrines where excreta is exposed for several hours of the day can be replaced by an economical type of septic tank latrine. 81. The African custom of using corn cobs, sticks and stones, rags, etc., for purposes of abstersion increases the difficulty in designing and maintaining septic tank latrines or water-borne sewage. (/) Cerebrospinal Meningitis. 82. No cases of cerebro-spinal meningitis were reported during the year. (g) Relapsing Fever. 83. No deaths were registered as being due to relapsing fever in spite of the influx of thousands of labourers from the French territory of Haute Volta. 84. Tens of thousands of labourers were deloused and had their effects disinfested at the two control disinfestation stations on the Tamale-Zuarungu and Kumasi-Tamale roads. (h) Yaws. 85. At welfare centres the number of cases of yaws treated was 4,984 forming 13 per centum of all cases seen. (in) Other Diseases. (a) Leprosy. 86. The leper settlements at Accra, Ho, Kumasi, Sekondi and Yendi continued to function satisfactorily during the year. (ib) Tuberculosis. 87. Some 695 deaths from tuberculosis were registered as compared with 705 deaths in 1933. The percentage of deaths from tuberculosis to deaths from all causes has risen from 9‘2 in 1932 to 10‘5 in 1933 and 10'6 in 1934. Ihe pulmonary form constituted over 90 per centum of all forms of the disease. In the pulmonary form the death-rate per 100,000 living persons in the areas in which death registration is carried out—containing rather less than one-tenth of the population of the Gold Coast—amounted to 219. In all forms the rate was 237. 88. Factors relating to its incidence have been dealt with in the annual report and summary of the Principal Registrar of Births, Deaths and Burials, for 1934 and will not therefore be discussed in detail in this report. 89. Two valuable amendments to the Mining Health Areas Regulations were enacted during the year with a view, inter alia, to combat the serious loss of life from this disease in mining labourers. 90. Firstly, the medical examination of all labourers employed on mines situated within mining health areas has been made compulsory. 91. Secondly, an obligation has been placed on the managers of mines in health areas to provide satisfactory accommodation for all labour employed. 92. The necessity for special wards for cases of tuberculosis was stressed during the year, the consensus of opinion being the hyper-susceptibility of the West African native to the acute, exudative or infantile form of the disease made the treatment of such cases in general wards a danger to other patients and to the African nursing staff alike. Carl Fliigge s droplet infection theoiy of some 40 years ago has certainly stood the test of time. ci