PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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Reference :-
C.O.885
19 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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No special sanitation.-There are no special sanitary measures taken here as regards this disease.
Latrines and privies.--No estates are provided with latrines, and the chief towns have either privies or dry-earth closets. Those in the capital are inspected by the Sanitary Officer and the Medical Officer of Health.
cases.
Treatment. The thymol and tonic treatment would be employed in severe
Treatment en masse. I do not think any measures necessary for treatment in plantations or en masse in Montserrat.
No large camps or closely-packed villages or plantations exist. Labourers on estates generally live in neighbouring villages or scattered habitations.
Villages and rainfall. The villages consist usually of a few huts widely separated from each other, each standing in its own bit of garden. The rainfall quickly runs off the slopes or dries up on the porous soil. Hence the conditions do not favour the spread of ankylostomiasis.
Water supply. The water supply, too, is chiefly from reservoirs, situated far from human habitations, or else from running streams from a mountain source, and hence not so liable to contamination by fæces as it is in those islands where drinking water is obtained largely from ponds or wells.
Sanitary measures recommended. As a general sanitary measure I recommend the building of two latrines on the seashore near to the capital, one at each end of the town, also that all pit privies should be abolished and the dry-earth system enforced.
I have, &c.,
His Honour
The Commissioner.
Enclosure 2 in No. 77.
(Virgin Islands. No. 54/171.)
M. P. DUKE,
Senior Medical Officer.
SIR,
Tortola, 24 March, 1908. In reply to the Secretary of State's despatch, Leeward Islands, No. 342, of November 26th, 1907, forwarded in your letter, No. 37/S.S. 342, of February 20th, 1908, I have the honour to report, for your information, that during the last three years I have only had brought to my notice as Medical Officer of the Virgin Islands, four undoubted cases of ankylostomiasis, one of which was fatal.
2. The disease is not so common in the Virgin Islands as in some other parts of the Colony where I have served as medical officer, viz., Dominica and Antigua, but in my opinion the comparative freedom of the Virgin Islands is merely due to their being so thinly populated that the infection is not so liable to be spread by contaminated water.
3. I have noticed that more cases of the disease are seen in the West Indies after heavy rains. No sanitary measures are in force dealing with the disease here. There are only six latrines in Road Town, with a population of about 400, and none in the country.
4. I fear it is not practicable to take any measures in this scattered community, to prevent the spread of the disease, and I am glad to say I do not think any are urgently required.
5. Individual cases I have found are best treated with thymol; the drug should be given in doses of gr. xx. after the bowels have been freely opened, and the dose repeated in a few days. After the parasites have been expelled patients improve most rapidly if given arsenic and iron, with an abundant milk diet.
I have, &c.,
ROBERT S. EARL,
His Excellency
The Governor of the
Leeward Islands.
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Enclosure 3 in No. 77.
(St. Christopher, Nevis. No. 80.)
SIR,
Government House, St. Kitts, West Indies, 24 March, 1908. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency's despatch, No. 54, of 20th February, transmitting a copy of one from the Secretary of State respecting the prevalence of ankylostomiasis in the West Indies, and to enclose a copy of a minute by the Senior Medical Officer giving the information asked for.
2. Your Excellency will observe that the disease cannot be said to be prevalent here, but should it be considered desirable to adopt the measures recommended by Dr. Fretz, legislation would be necessary with respect to the first and third of his proposals. As to the second, I suppose there are few islands where such pure water is supplied to the general population as in St. Kitts and in Nevis.
I have, &c.,
T. LAWRENCE ROXBURGH,
His Excellency
Sir Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott, K.C.M.G.,
Governor of the Leeward Islands, Antigua.
HIS HONOUR
SENIOR MEDICAL OFFICER to ADMINISTRATOR.
THE ADMINISTRATOR,
Administrator.
CASES of ankylostomiasis have from time to time been reported from the outlying districts, and have been seen in town, though not occurring in an epidemic form. The disease has not been observed in Nevis. No increase has been noted in rainy seasons. No sanitary measures are in force in the Presidency for dealing with the disease, nor is any strict supervision exercised over those who are subjects of it; no latrine accommodation is provided on the estates. The only method of treatment adopted here has been by thymol. The disease never having shown itself epidemically or a tendency to spread, no preventive measures have been called for, but I would suggest the following means for combating the infection if it
prove necessary :—
1. Improved disposal of excreta, and the prevention of re-infection.
2. Pure water for drinking purposes.
3. The segregation of all cases in hospital until all worms have been
discharged from the body.
23 March, 1908.
SIR,
(Dominica. No. 267/960.)
Enclosure 4 in No. 77.
W. H. FRETZ,
Senior Medical Officer.
Government House, Dominica, 14 July, 1908. WITH reference to Your Excellency's despatches, No. 44, of the 20th February last, and No. 182, of the 5th ultimo, I have the honour to transmit herewith a copy of a report by Dr. H. A. Nicholls, C.M.G., Senior Medical Officer of this Presidency, on the subject of ankylostomiasis in Dominica.
2. The suggestion made by Dr. Nicholls in paragraph 14 of his report appears to me to be a good one, and I have asked Dr. Nicholls to be good enough to let me have a leaflet on the disease, which I will have printed and circulated as he suggests. 3. The previous report made by Dr. Nicholls in 1899 was forwarded to Antigua under cover of despatch, No. 239, of the 11th December, 1899.
Commissioner.
His Excellency
I have, &c.,
Governor Sir Bickham Sweet-Escott, K.C.M.G.,
&c., &c., &c.
DOUGLAS YOUNG,
Administrator.
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