PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference —
C.O.
.885
78
That the disease should spread over the watershed into 'Rhodesia and South Africa is too terrible to contemplate.
(No. O. 197/509.)
DEAR SIR,
Yours, &c.,
A. YALE MASSEY.
(No. B. 7/1907.)
SIR,
Enclosure 2 in No. 15.
(Annexure No. 5.)
Chief Secretary's Office, Salisbury, Rhodesia,
January 19, 1907. WITH reference to recent correspondence received from the Administrator, North-Eastern Rhodesia, on the subject of sleeping sickness on the Congolese Border, and the danger of its introduction into Northern Rhodesia, I beg to transmit herewith, for the information of the Board, copy of a report on the subject furnished by the Medical Director (Doctor Fleming), copies of which have been forwarded to the Administrators of North-Eastern and North-Western Rhodesia.
I am, &c.,
H. H. CASTENS,
Chief Secretary.
79
Enclosure 3 in No. 15.
(Annexure No. 6.)
(Received February 18, 1907.)
Administrator's Office, Kalomo, January 25, 1907. I AM directed to forward, for the information of the Board, copies of the undernoted correspondence, relative to reported cases of sleeping sickness in the Ndola District:-
1. Secretary for Native Affairs to Secretary, No. S. 6/1907 (two enclosures). 2. Medical Officer, Kalomo, to Secretary, Kalomo, No. C. 2/1907, 22nd
January, 1907.
His Honour proposes placing the new doctor who has been asked for on the Border to patrol the same west of Dr. Elmes's "beat." He will instruct all white men as to symptoms and methods of prevention, make suggestions, and, with his assistance, District Commissioners will make one or more ports of entry.
It is presumed that sleeping sickness cannot infect in a country where there is no fly.
The Secretary,
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
The Secretary
The British South Africa Company,
London Wall Buildings, London.
The PRIVATE SECRETARY TO
HIS HONOUR THE ADMINISTRATOR,
Salisbury,
Medical Director's Office,
Salisbury, January 15, 1907. CORRESPONDENCE and reports relating to possible spread of sleeping sickness to North-Eastern Rhodesia, are returned herewith.
It is evident that the spread of the disease into the above territory is by no means a remote possibility, in fact, it very probable unless stringent precautions
are enforced.
With regard to its spread southwards into Southern Rhodesia, it would neces- sarily Le limited to those districts and strips of country known as fly belts, where the tsetse fly exists.
I am unaware of what varieties of tsetse flies exist in this Colony; they probably differ in different regions, but our present knowledge appears to show that all varieties must be viewed with suspicion as being probable carriers of the disease. In Southern Rhodesia the danger of the spread of sleeping sickness to the European population or to the mass of the native population is nil, but it might prove a serious factor in the opening up of districts where fly is known to exist, and the estab- lishment of mines or other industries there.
The situation in North-Western Rhodesia, however, is quite different, where,
1 am informed, there are large tracts of fly-infested country.
The extension of the railway to the Congo Border will more than probably be followed by the appearance of sleeping sickness in the fly-infested portions of North-Western Rhodesia unless effective precautions are instituted..
Another undoubted path of possible infection is the passage of bands of natives from districts where sleeping sickness is endemic through fly belts in Rhodesia to mines, &c., in the south. There is no danger of the spread of the disease amongst employees of the mines concerned, where the mines are situated remote from fly- infested areas, but in their passage through such areas on their journey southward, infected members of the band are liable to supply infection to the tsetse in hitherto uninfected fly belts, and so cause the spread of the disease amongst the inhabitants.
Therefore recruiting of native labour in areas where sleeping sickness is known to exist should be prohibited or only allowed under certain conditions.
A. M. FLEMING,
Medical Director.
I have, &c.,
S. M. LANIGAN O'KEEFFE,
British South Africa Company,
2, London Wall Buildings, E.C.
Secretary.
(No. S. 6/1907.)
ŞIR,
Native Affairs' Department, Kalomo, January 11, 1907.
Sleeping Sickness.
I HAVE the honour to submit, for His Honour's information, a report from
the Assistant District Commissioner, Ndola, with reference to the detection of cases of "sleeping sickness."
I also forward extracts from monthly reports of the Acting District Commis- sioner, Loangwa, bearing upon the same subject:-
August. Sleeping sickness. The Acting Collector, Mwomboshi, reports that a native from Blantyre, British Central Africa, suffering from sleeping sickness wandered into his station during his absence on patrol. By chance, there happened to be some people on the station to whom he was personally known, and who were attending him. It is proposed to have the man removed as soon as he is fit enough to travel, meanwhile he has been isolated.
September. The man, reported last month, as suffering from sleeping sickness, or symptoms of that disease at Chilenga, Mwomboshi sub-district, died during the absence of the Acting Collector on patrol, and was buried.
Mr. Zurn, a cattle trader, reported to the Clerk in Charge, Feira, that one of his cattle-herds had been attacked by this disease on the road from German East Africa, and that he had reported this to the Native Commis- sioner at Serenje, North-Eastern Rhodesia, and had paid off that native there. Copies of report and extracts have been supplied to the Medical Officer.
I have, &c.,
The Secretary, Kalomo.
SIR,
(No. B. 135/1906.)
H. G. CHEVENS,
For Secretary for Native Affairs.
Ndole Station, December 21, 1906.
Sleeping Sickness.
I HAVE to bring to His Honour's notice news of extreme graveness with regards to sleeping sickness.
A man named R. W. Sumpton passed through this station from Ruwe, Congo
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.