PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TREET CO. 885
linikuiniu
24 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
(No. 89.) SIR,
Government House, St. Lucia, 29th July, 1915..
I HAVE the honour to forward, for the information of Your Excellency and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, copies of a report by Dr. Stanley Branch, Medical Officer in charge, on the ankylostomiasis eradication campaign in St. Lucia during the first two quarters of the year 1915.
2. This report indicates that, whilst all effort has been made by Dr. Branch to get the best possible use out of the funds at his disposal and to prosecute the cam- paign with vigour, his work has suffered considerably from the fact that co-ordi- nately with the medicinal treatment no measures have been taken to enforce à system of latrinage. Without this no permanent good can be achieved, and ultimately the large sums of money being expended by the Commission will be almost entirely wasted.
3. There is at present no properly constituted Government Sanitary Depart- ment, and so soon as financial circumstances warrant this, arrangements should be made to institute such a department. It might be established by superadding to,
* No. 7.
18
and making use of, the present Health Department in Castries. This is, however, a matter for further consideration when the time is ripe.
4. Upon examining, shortly after my arrival here the conditions upon which the ankylostomiasis eradication campaign was being conducted, I discovered this missing link in its perfect working, and I have for some time been in communication with Dr. Howard, the Director of the Commission at Trinidad, with a view to coming to some arrangement for tiding over the period until the Government has the machinery and is able to bear the whole financial responsibility of the sanitary side of the campaign. I hope to make a satisfactory arrangement shortly, and in any case the Government is fully alive to the importance of prosecuting the cam- paign in regard to its sanitary as well as its medicinal side.
5. Regulations are at present being drafted under the Public Health Act, and will shortly be promulgated, making the erection of latrinage of certain approved types compulsory in the country districts, both by owners of plantations for their labourers as well as by individual owners of houses. In the towns and villages this is already the law.
6.
It is pleasing to note that, notwithstanding the defect discussed in this despatch, Dr. Branch considers that the result of the past six months' campaign has been satisfactory.
1
His Excellency
Sir G. B. Haddon-Smith, K.C.M.G.,
&c., &c., &c.,
Grenada.
I have, &c.,
GIDEON MURRAY,
Administrator.
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SIR,
Enclosure in No. 10.
Rockefeller Foundation Office, Castries, 17th July, 1915.
I HAVE the honour to submit, for the information of His Excellency the Governor, the Director for the West Indies, and yourself, the following report, with classification tables and appendices, on the working of the hookworm eradication campaign in St. Lucia during the first two quarters of the year 1915.
2 Dr. Howard, on his visit to St. Lucia in November, 1914, directed that an extensive campaign should be opened on 1st January in the Cul de Sac Valley. An area was mapped out with an approximate population of 2,000, and a budget of expenditure for the first quarter submitted and approved. The boundaries of this area are attached as Appendix A. It practically includes half of the Cul de Sac Valley.
3. For the second quarter I submitted a budget and a proposal to continue the work, in the same valley, to form a complete whole from the sea to the Barre de l'Isle, between the summits of the ridges on the north and south forming the natural boun- daries of the entire valley. The boundaries of the second area are attached as Appendix B, and the map of the two areas combined forms Appendix C.*
4. In addition to the Medical Officer in charge and his clerk, the staff con- sisted of two microscopists and two series of nurses. This was further supple- mented by a third series of nurses during the second quarter; each series of nurses consisted of a head and an assistant nurse. All the staff employed were males, young, energetic natives of the Colony.
5. The central office was established in the town of Castries, where all the book work was performed. The campaign is much indebted to the kindness of Mr. E. G. Bennett, Managing Director of the Cul de Sac Valley, for the use of his private bungalow in the valley. In this building was established the field office, where the microscopists worked daily.
6. The area of campaign was a large sinuous valley, gradually narrowing down to a gorge through which rushes a mountain stream from the Barre de l'Isle. Irregularly steep and rugged ridges separate the valley from those of Roseau on the south and Castries on the north, and still more rugged ridges branch down these sides into the valley itself, forming innumerable ravines and gullies of varying sizes. The area is very beautiful in its ruggedness, with its masses of dense tropical
*Not transmitted, to Colonial Office.
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