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10398
(No. 56.)
MY LORD,
122
No. 68.
BRITISH GUIANA.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Received 24 March, 1908.)
[Answered by No. 69.]
:
Government House, Georgetown, Demerara, 4 March, 1908. REFERRING to your Lordship's despatch, No. 305, of the 26th November last,* and to previous correspondence with regard to the prevalence of anchylostomiasis in the West Indian Colonies. I have the honour to transmit a copy of a report which has been made to me by the Honourable J. E. Godfrey, Surgeon-General. In this report Dr. Godfrey sets forth the action which has been, and is being, taken in this Colony to cope with the, disease, and he, at the same time, replies to the several questions which are contained in the penultimate paragraph of the despatch.
2. Dr. Godfrey is a very enthusiastic worker in the matter of anchylostomiasis, and he has enlisted the cordial co-operation of several of the District Medical Officers. He and they are confident that their efforts towards the eradication of the disease will be attended with success.
3. I do not propose to take legislative action at present for preventing the spread of infection. The Surgeon-General says that he considers that the time has now arrived for requiring the owners of sugar estates to provide proper latrine accommodation to the satisfaction of the Medical Department and to make it an offence for anyone to defæcate on any part of an estate excepting in places set apart for the purpose.
4. I am prepared to agree with Dr. Godfrey, at any rate with regard to the former of the two propositions, but I think that the matter should stand over for the present because of the more or less precarious financial condition of some of the sugar estates. It is just those estates that have not provided latrine accommodation They are on the border line between voluntarily that legislation would affect. stopping or proceeding with cultivation, and I think that the Government should refrain from any action which is likely to cause further difficulties, as it is of far more importance to the Colony that the labourers should be employed than that they should be thrown out of employment through any action which may be taken to give them immunity from a particular disease.
5. Again, if compulsory action with regard to the provision of proper latrine accommodation is to be taken in connection with the sugar estates it should be taken also in connection with the several villages of the Colony, because it is quite clear that the remedy would be incomplete if such action were taken in one case and not in the other. But the Surgeon General, in his capacity as Chairman of the Local Government Board, knows that action as regards the villages is impossible, or, as he puts it, "for obvious reasons it is a matter that has to be dealt with with tact and patience." The people have not yet been educated up to the point when they would assent to compulsion; and, in my opinion, and the Immigration Agent- General shares it as regards sugar estates, the question of applying compulsion by legal measures must stand over for the present.
The Honourable
Enclosure 1 in No. 68.
The GOVERNMENT SECRETARY,
I have, &c.,
F. M. HODGSON.
1. Statistics of the prevalence of anchylostomiasis in the Colony, and its distribution.
1. I have been collecting statistics of the prevalence of this disease on the sugar estates since June, 1904.
No. 130 in Miscellaneous No. 204.
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2. The medical officers in charge of the hospitals on the sugar estates have to send me every month on a special form* a return showing the number of cases treated. These returns are tabulated and published in the "Official Gazette.” attach copy (marked B*) of the last one published (December, 1907). From this return it will be seen that no less than 39,241 cases have been treated since June, 1904.
3. In addition to the above every new immigrant immediately on arrival on I attach copies tlic estate is examined for the disease and a return made to me on a special form.* These are also tabulated and published in the "Official Gazette." marked D).*
4. It is a well-known fact that the disease exists in other parts of the Colony, but we have no means at our disposal of getting reliable statistics as in the case of the sugar estates.
II. Is there any marked increase in the severity of the disease in rainy seasons? III. The method of treatment usually employed in severe cases.
1. I attach copies of reports by Drs. Von Winckler, Kennard, and Ozzard, who are enthusiastic workers in this special field.
2. The difference of opinion expressed is more apparent than real, the diffi- culty being that a person may be infected for a very considerable time without showing any signs of infection. The difference in treatment is one in which the personal element comes in, one practitioner being more successful than another in the use and administration of individual drugs.
IV. The sanitary measures in force in the Colony for dealing with the disease.
1. There are no special sanitary measures for dealing with this disease. The Medical Department has had to rely on persuasive measures and the assistance of the medical officers. Our crusade has been chiefly on the sugar estates.
V. The nature of the latrine accommodation provided, both on the estates and
in the centres of population, and the supervision which is exercised over them.
A. On the Sugar Estates.
1. Within the last three years 23 sugar estates have been provided with latrine accommodation, and this in the face of considerable opposition.
2. I attach a return* showing the estates with and without latrines.
3. Supervision is to a certain extent exercised by the medical officers and by the Medical Inspector at his visits of inspection.
B. In the Centres of Population.
1. In the villages and country districts the latrine accommodation is very unsatisfactory. The question is one that has occupied and is still occupying the attention of the Local Government Board.
I attach copy of correspondence between the Government and the Local Govern- ment Board on the subject. For obvious reasons it is a matter that has to be dealt with with tact and patience.
2. In my opinion the matter is not nearly so important in the villages and country districts as on the sugar estates. In the villages there has always been a certain amount of latrine accommodation. On the sugar estates none was pro- vided until recently for the immigrants--there is also less publicity than in the villages, and the immigrants have been allowed to defæcate any and everywhere on the land, thereby creating most fertile sources of infection.
VI. A. The treatment of anchylostomiasis on plantations.
B. The treatment of anchylostomiasis" en masse.”
C. General and special sanitary measures.
I attach reports from Doctors Ozzard, Von Winckler, and Kennard.
My own opinion is that we should continue to work on the lines we have been doing for the past four years. I am quite satisfied that we are making headway. There are still a few sugar estates that have not cither erected or attempted to erect
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