CO885-(18-19) — Page 589

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

3

Reference :-

minimumtm C.O.885

19 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

70

Spillane, Principal Medical Officer, North-Eastern Rhodesia, on sleeping sickness. A copy of the Report has been sent to the Sleeping Sickness Bureau.

Dr. Spillane has just arrived home on leave.

SIR,

I am, &c.,

A. P. MILLAR,

Assistant Secretary.

Enclosure in No. 18.

British South Africa Company, Secretary's Office, North-Eastern Rhodesia, Fort Jameson,

6 October, 1908.

I HAVE to forward the Principal Medical Officer's latest report on sleeping sickness in North-Eastern Rhodesia, No. 9, of the 6th October, 1908.

I am, &c.,

HENRY RANGELEY,

Secretary.

The Secretary,

The British South Africa Company,

2, London Wall Buildings, London, E.C.

SLEEPING SICKNESS REPORT, 1908.

Since my last report much has been done to check the spread of sleeping sickness in North-Eastern Rhodesia. As soon as the disease was recognised a temporary sleeping sickness area was declared along the border, and as an additional safe- guard until the work in the sleeping sickness area was more thoroughly accomplished a guard area was declared outside the sleeping sickness area. Three sleeping sick- ness stations were opened at Madona, Chiengi, and Sumbu, and a medical officer appointed to the former, where cases of sleeping sickness were segregated and placed under treatment. On the Luapula the infected villages in contact with Glossina palpalis were moved away and the river closed for crossing with the exception of the Madona Ferry. A Native Commissioner was appointed to Chiengi, on Lake Mweru, and the work in that district was started at once. The villages were moved from the Lunchinda stream, on the Belgian border (Glossina palpalis), and extensive clearings made at all villages situated on or near the lake shore. The cases of sleeping sickness found there were all segregated at a camp made near the station, but were not put under treatment until the arrival of the medical officer in June this year. An attempt was also made to clear the Kalungwisi River of its "fly," but proved too great an undertaking, and has since been abandoned. Unfortunately no Native Commissioner was available for the Sumbi Station, on Lake Tanganyika, for five months; consequently, beyond closing the border and making a few clearings very little was done until my arrival there in July of this year. Regulations have been framed by which the movements of natives into and out of the sleeping sickness area are now controlled by a system of permits; all transport and the movements of Europeans have been organised, and itinerant trading with the sleeping sickness area suppressed.

This year I made another complete tour of the sleeping sickness area extending my observations from where I left off last year, on Lake Tanganyika, along the German border to Fife, thus completing the examination of the entire Anglo-German and Anglo-Congolese borders. The tour was made with a view to accomplishing the following objects:—

I. To segregate every case of sleeping sickness in permanent segregation camps free from "fly," and to place them under medical treatment and supervision.

II. To complete the examination of the border eastwards to the Nyasaland

Protectorate.

JII. To make a more complete examination of the sleeping sickness area. IV. To map out a permanent division between the infected and clean country shutting off from the clean country all the conditions which are known to establish endemic foci.

•

one

I.

71

-V. To move the populations living in contact with Glossing palpalis into

fly-free country.

VI. To examine the guard area.

On

All the cases of sleeping sickness have now been segregated and placed under medical supervision in permanent segregation camps free from all forms of blood-sucking flies. The temporary camp at Madona has been moved to Fort Rosc- bery, about 40 miles from the Luapula, and the medical officer has made his resi- Two more medical officers have been appointed this year, Lake dence there.

on Lake Mweru with headquarters at Chiengi and one Tanganyika, with headquarters at Abercorn. These three places are all well situated for the permanent segregation of cases, and camps have been built providing accom- modation or the patients and a limited number of relatives. The only difficulty experienced in segregating the cases occurred on Lake Tanganyika, and this, I con- sidered, was largely owing to the inability of the Administration to place a Native Commissioner there as soon as the disease was found last November, and taking the cases in hand at once, as in the other districts. On my arrival at Sumbu this year there were 27 cases of sleeping sickness scattered about the lake shore, two deaths having occurred among the cases I found there last November. As soon as the cases on the west side of the lake were segregated at Sumbu the news spread rapidly round the lake, and all the cases on the east side at once fled into German territory. I went round to the east side of the lake and visited the German station of Bismarkburg to express to the Commandant our regret at the occurrence, and to ask for any assist- ance he was able to afford us in having the cases returned on account of the precedent it would establish. He said there would be no difficulty about this as they were liable to punishment for having crossed the border, and were in hiding in a village not far from the Boma. It was also arranged that all offenders in this respect from cither territory should, in future, he handed over to their respective administrations at that Kalambo River. It is unfortunate that no such arrangement could be entered into with the Belgian Administration, as, while thus occupied on the cast side of the lake, six more cases ran away on the west side into Belgian territory. These have not since been heard of.

The initial troubles have now been overcome, and all the patients now segre- gated are quite resigned to their new life, and show no disposition to resent it. The majority of them being in apparent good health and of good physique, the difficulty now experienced is to keep them occupied. To cach camp a plot of ground has been allotted for the planting of crops, and each patient has the option of working on this ground at a nominal wage, and the resulting crops are taken over by the Administra- tion for feeding the patients. Any surplus of food they choose to grow on their own account would be bought by the Administration for consumption on the station at Mat making, basket making, and rope making, are also the current market rates. encouraged, but a market for these articles so far from European settlements is sometimes difficult to find. The cost of feeding in the Luapula and Mweru Districts is about 1d. per diem for each patient, and in the Abercorn District (Lake Tangany- ika) 2d. a day.

II. This year I extended my observations along the east side of Tanganyika to the German border, and thence followed the border towards the Nyasaland Protec- torate as far as Fife. Glossina palpalis was found in abundance on the lake shore, and for two miles up the Kalambo River (the boundary). Cases of sleeping sickness were found in the villages on the lake shore. A few miles from the lake the ground rises precipitously about 2,000 feet, attaining an altitude of nearly 5,000, which is maintained for the whole distance along the border to Fife, forming the Tanganyika- Nyasa Plateau. At this altitude I found no Glossina palpalis on any of the rivers, and an examination of the villages along the border revealed no cases of sleeping sickness. The entire border thus completed is about 600 miles in extent. Whilst on the border I visited the Belgian station of Pueto, on Lake Mweru, where there were 84 cases of sleeping sickness, and the German station of Bismarkburg, on Lake Tanganyika, where there were 10 cases.

III. The sleeping sickness area has now been more thoroughly investigated both by myself and by Dr. Kinghorn, of the Liverpool School Commission. A few more cases of sleeping sickness were found which, with 21 cases reported by the Liverpool School Commission, bring the total number of cases found in North- Eastern Rhodesia to 55. An extension of Glossina palpalis was found on the Lofu River, and was traced as far as Mutete's villages, about 50-60 miles from its estuary

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

IRE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-