Report on sleeping sickness in northern Rhodesia to February 1912 / by A. May.

  • May, A.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report on sleeping sickness in northern Rhodesia to February 1912 / by A. May. 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 UNAUTHORISED CROSSING OF THE LUAPULA THROUGH GL. PALPALIS. A cuiisiclei'iible number of ljuapula natives still cross into Belgian Territory in search of work, thereby riinning very great risks of infection. They seem to be mainly employed by small employers of labour. If the Belgian Authorities could be induced by some system of registration or some form of control to prohibit this it would greatly aid in the suppression of the disease. ' THE OCCURRENCE OF THE LUANGWA VARIETY OF HUMAN TRYPANOSOME OUTSIDE THE CONFINES OF THE PRESENT CLOSED AREA. The (|uestion of whether the Luangwa Valley human trypanosome has a distril)ution beyond the coniines of the present closed area will mainly depend for settlement on whether or not the Glossina Morsitans will be found to act as the vector under the different climatic conditions which obtain on the Plateau and elsewhere. It has been suggested that this will not be found to l)a so. Howaver ju Iging from the fact that we know the disetise to be transmis.sable in CliinumUus country, the altitude of which is roughly iloOO feet as comiiared to the Luangwa Valley 22()0-2.)()0, there seems unfortunately little reason to ho])e that transmission will be in any way inhil)ited I)y the natural conditions which exist throughout the rest of the territory. The Sleeping Sickness Commission have now started inves- tigations near Mpika foi‘ the settlement of this question, and it is hoped that a delinite result will ba available during the next few months. In the meantime the two following cases are of special interest in this connection. 1. The case of Kuropean, whose previous history (juite excluded the po.ssil)ility of his having contracted the disease in the Luangwa endemic area, or Nycvsaland. There w.is a i)revious history of residence in endemic areas in the Congo Free State, l)ut judging from the subse(]uent develop- ment of the case and to the somewhat remote period at which this could have occurred through the agency of (rlossina Palpalis, it seems probable that this infection was contracted by other means, i.e. Glossina Morsitans, and in a section of country aI)out which there had previously been no suspicion of the possil)ility of trypanosome infection. This view is streng- thened by the fact that subsequent investigations have demonstrated the presence of posterior nncleation, the specific characteristic of T. Rhodesiense, in the infecting trypanosome. (This case has been fully reported by Dr. G. W. Ellacoml)e in the Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene). 2. The Second case was diagnosed by Dr. P. H. War<l at Ndola in August P.lll, there is no knowledge availaljle as to the nature of the infecting trypanosome l)ut a complete liistorj' of the native’s previous movements has been obtained from Messrs. Moffat Thomson and Sandford. and there seems no reason to attribute the infection to Glossina Palpalis. So far all search for further c.ises in the localities in which these infections might have taken place has proved negative.