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19 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
Congo
6468
No. 5.
NYASALAND PROTECTORATE/
THE ACTING GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(No. 18.)
MY LORD,
(Received February 22, 1908.)
[Answered by No. 7.]
Government House, Zomba, Nyasaland Protectorate,
January 17, 1908. WITH regard to the measures adopted in this Protectorate to prevent sleep: ing sickness entering within its confines, and to the general question of restricting the spread of the disease in other territories, I have the honour to inform your Lordship that I consider it desirable that every effort should be made by the Governments of those British territories interested in the movement to afford each other all possible information on the subject.
2. With this object I have instructed the Principal Medical Officer of this Protectorate to prepare and circulate a monthly diary to contain reports received from medical officers and District Residents engaged in investigations in Nyasaland, detailing the steps taken and all information as to the occurrence of the disease. I have asked the Administrator of North-Eastern Rhodesia to formulate and carry out a similar procedure in that territory, and Mr. Wallace has agreed to the suggestion. I have also asked the Governor of Uganda to forward monthly notes of work carried on in the territory under his jurisdiction, so that the officers engaged here in sleeping sickness operations may have without delay the benefit of the expert investigations carried out in Uganda, without having to wait for the publication of reports by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
3. I enclose, for your Lordship's information, 20 copies of the diary for this Protectorate for the months of November and December, 1907.
I have, &c.,
Enclosure in No. 5.
NYASALAND PROTECTORATE.
SLEEPING SICKNESS.
W. H. MANNING,
Acting Governor.
DIARY by the Principal Medical Officer.
30th November, 1907. Information received up to date is as follows:-The southern limit of the reported as commencing at Mvua on the western Free State. sleeping sickness endemic area
shore of Tanganyika and passing through Mpweto, Kiambi, Ankoro, Mbuli, Mwana-Kialo, Mutombo-Mukula, and thence westward to the Portuguese boundary. Observations made locally have led to the belief that G. morsitans carries the infection as well as G. palpalis.
Lake Tangan- yika.
Lake
Mweru.
Imported cases of sleeping sickness have been observed as far south as Mvua
on the western shore of the lake, in association with G. palpalis. Sleeping sickness exists all along the west coast of Tanganyika north of the 7th degree of south present in large numbers. On the east of the lake latitude, and G. palpalis imported cases of the disease from the Congolese territory have been found as far south as Ujiji.
Cases of sleeping sickness have been observed at Lukonzolwa, on the west of this lake. At Mpweto, on the north west, no case has yet been seen.
G. palpalis is found to exist in the following localities:--
(1) West side of Lake Mweru.
(2) Junction of Dikulwe with the Lufira.
(3) On the Luapula at Kasenga.
(4) At Koni Hill on the Lufira.
:
(5) On the Lukelezi River, near Congo Zamlesi watershed.
(6) At Busanga, junction of the Lufupa with the Lualaba.
(7) On the south Kaluli.
On the Lualaba from the Kalenga Falls north to Chisamba. (9) At the Inje River running into Lake Kavele.
Cases of trypanosomiasis are observed among the following:-Carriers from Lake Kasali, in Malonda's Village, at the Belgian post Bukama, at Tengalonzi's Village. The natives of several other villages are examined; a large proportion of them present enlarged glands, and are presumably infected.
Territories
of Tangan-
yika Con- Cessions. Limited.
The southern shore of Lake Tanganyika is not yet infected, and G. palpalis North- has not been found here. A case of sleeping sickness is reported at Mvua, north Eastern of the North-Eastern Rhodesia Loundary, and another at Lukonzolwa, on the Rhodesia. western shore of Lake Mweru. G. palpatis has been observed at both these places. Another imported case has been reported at the Belgian post of Kasenga, and G. palpalis is found in this locality. The fly is also found to exist at the Nafunta Falls, on the Congolese bank of the Luapula.
A
Preventive Measures.-Natives are ordered to keep out of the adjacent Congo and German territories. The establishment of a medical post at Kalungwisi is suggested, to watch the Loundary between Lakes Tanganyika and Mweru. special medical post is established at Madona, which is the regular ferry on the Luapula, and all natives passing this way are systematically examined. All suspicious cases are detained and segregated, and if sleeping sickness is diagnosed infected persons are to be removed to a part of North-Eastern Rhodesia which is free of fly. Native Commissioners are instructed to assist the medical authorities by keeping a record of all natives returning from the interior of the Congo and placing them more or less under observation after their return. Special attention is directed to be given to any natives from the Tanganyika Concessions who may be reported by the medical officers of that company as having been exposed to infection or as having entered the endemic area.
In view of a statement emanating from the Liverpool School of Tropical Nyasaland. Medicine that "in practice every negro with enlarged neck glands must be suspected of being affected with sleeping sickness," upwards of 5,000 natives have been examined in several districts and among various tribes, with the result that at least eight per cent. of healthy natives are found to present this cervical glandular enlargement. Gland puncture is done in selected cases, but with negative results. A map is prepared showing the distribution of tsetse flies in the Protectorate and the different species found, and especial attention is devoted in this regard to the regions at the north-west of Lake Nyasa. These have already been investi- gated on two separate occasions, with negative results both as to the existence of tsetse other than G. fusca, and of trypanosomiasis in animals or man.
Preventive Measures.-A Government medical post is established at Karonga, and natives returning to the North Nyasa district along routes passing through Kasama or Abercorn from the neighbourhood of the Luapula, Mweru, and South Tanganyika regions are systematically examined.
The Resident at Karonga is instructed to supply the medical officer with infor- mation relative to natives travelling along the routes mentioned, and to forward same for inspection.
The transport agents concerned have been notified to send their carriers returning by these routes to the medical officer for the like purpose.
A record of the natives palpated for enlarged glands is forwarded monthly to the Principal Medical Officer.
The Resident at Karonga is instructed to forbid the engagement of Nyasaland natives if their contract requires them to proceed west of Kasama.
The Administrator of North-Eastern Rhodesia is requested to prevent Nyasa- land natives from crossing the Luapula or going west of Kasama.