SLEEPING SICKNESS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 746, 19 February 1910, Page 10

SLEEPING SICKNESS.

SUPPRESSION IN .UGANDA. •- ■ ■'' Thanks to tho,' heroic; measures adopted by the British.. Administration, great progress has been made in Uganda during the last three years' towards '..the'" suppression of the -deadly ' scourge of sleeping sickness.' It - is,"estimated that between' 1898 and lflOG more than 200,(100 natives perished: from the disease;-. At the end. of the latter year, according to - a report by Sir H. H'esketh Bell just published, over 100;000 'souls are still living, in -the fly-, infested areas—3o,ooo in .the islands in the Victoria Nyanza, and the .'remainder in homesteads.: and villages on - the . lake shore or. on the banks' of- tho Nile and other rivers. . Tho • whole.' of - this- large population lias now. been removed to other districts, .with, -the result -that ■ the-, mortality iias' rapidly,-declined.-. During 1907: the deaths'numbered about- 5000; in 1908. they wer6V.3CG2;.-and-, in.'.thp.first-half of-last-year the total for tho larger of-the, two area's, affectei'was-0n1y.;., ■■■■;■... . Sir, 5- ,-HesKeth, IB ; ell.- pays a: ..warn;tribute.tp tho capacity, ■ discretion,' and zeal shewn ,by -every,-'■-administrative -officer: who, .was'connected with , : '-tlie removal operations. ,- "It is " hardly-; necessary .' for. me.to' ; point-'out it,was:only by tho exercise :of • infinite : patience and ; tact, that 100,000 persons were, induced to abandon their homes' and plantations at tho simple bidding of ; the .British AdministratiPn. ■The display pf.anything;:'-like highhandedness or lack of sympathy wpuld have aroused- such -feelings of resentment and ..opposition.:in-'the -breasts of :the natives. that' the' whole; military , forces in the Protectorate :might' have been unable to .cope -.with; the;-situation.'', Vl , ' ■ Urifortunatelyi despite.,.tho .'untiring search which has been carried on, arid, the devoted-. labours.'of; tho medical staff, not a single authentic cure can yet bo- pro r duced - a'mpng , ; all-. thei thousands.-' of-* suf-ferers.who-Jiave-passed, through-the segre-; gation camps.' , while -'.expressing tli'e. ; coi& viction';that, so loiig_ .as> rigid-, "tabu",-is' maintained of all fly-infested regions there will-be. no- risk.'-of.'a•".-recrudescence of; sleeping sickness in Uganda, Sir H. Hesketh Bell ..adds-that,there, are still very, many thousands in. the Protectorate whp are stricken with. the disease. "Failing . tho discovery of. a cure, every one .pf those' Unfprtunntes seems doomed to death. So : long.'as; they, are kept beyond\the reach, of a tsetse Hy . they are believed, to carry no risk to the nealthy . people among, whom they may be now living. We think that we are justified in believing that in the vast majority of cases every individual who may now, be dying of sleeping sickjiess in Uganda- contracted tho disease beforo he' was removed from his flyinfested home.'".We""aiSticipate that the number,'of 'the, affected-will,now-steadily diminish until"the mortality; becomes "a matter of only mifiar'lmportance."