Report on the public health / Southern Rhodesia.

  • Southern Rhodesia. Department of Health
Date:
[1928]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the public health / Southern Rhodesia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/84 (page 43)
    IReport of tbc IRbobestan IRcsearcb jfcllow for tbc year 192S. The Medical Director, Salisbury. I have the honour to submit a report on the work done by me as Rhodesian Research Fellow during* the year 1928. Black water Fever.—(a) Statistics.—The total number of cases reported to me was 37; in 25 of these form 28 A was received and 9 were seen personally by me. No information other than notification was received in 3. The statistics, therefore, are based on the 34 cases of which full information is available. Number of cases . 34 Number of deaths . 8 Seasonal Incidence— January .. F ebruary March ... April ... . May . June . duly . August ... September October .. November December 1 5 6 9 8 1 2 1 1 Incidence of morbidity and mortality according to sex— Males . Females Cases. Deaths. 30 6 4 2 Incidence of morbidity according to age groups— 1-9 . 10-19 . 20-29 . 30-39 . 40-49 . 50-59 . 60 and over . nil 5 5 7 14 3 nil The percentage death rate this year is 23,5 per cent., as compared with 36.1 per cent, last year. The following information has also been obtained. In 22 cases the attack was the first, in 5 there had been one previous attack, in 1 two, in 3 three, while the attack was the sixth, seventh and ninth in each of the remaining 3 cases. Death occurred in the first attack in 6 cases, in the third attack in 1 case, and in the sixth attack in 1. As long a period as 20 years was noted as having occurred between the last and present attack. Suppression of urine was given as the cause of death in 3 cases, cardiac failure in 2, and toxaemia in 1, the cause of death in the remaining 2 cases not being given. General.—In this, the final annual report of the present investigator, it may be pertinent briefly to summarise the general lines on which the investigation into the disease has been conducted, and the results obtained therefrom. Obscure and puzzling diseases, such as blackwater fever, are as attractive and beckoning to the theorist as the visionary land of El Dorado is to the seeker of wealth. Thus around blackwater fever has been woven such a maze of conjecture and supposition, unsupported by facts, that to quote the expressions of another