MALARIA AND THE EMPIRE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5359, 3 December 1928, Page 3

MALARIA AND THE EMPIRE

SIR RONALD ROSS AND HIS WORK.

AFTER THIRTY YEARS.

“As long as I live I will keep on fussing them. I want to see malaria control throughout the Empire.”

Nearly thir.ty yqars ago Sir Ronald Ross —who now announces 'his intention to dispose of the* archives of his work for financial reasons—made his important discovery of the malariacarrying mosquito. Recently, at his Ross Institute andl Hospital for Tropical Diseases, e ; n Putney Heath, he made this vehement declaration in the c.ourse of a talk with the London “Observer” on the present scopq of his work and its future. Although in his seventy-second year, not able to get about with his former vigour, he is still mentally hale, kden, enthusiastic—and does not despair of the ultimate fulfilment of the work to which he dedicated his life. “Thirty years !” he exclaimed. “And we are still arguing. Long ago 1 recommended that the Government should send qut messages to all our countries overseas which are concerned, asking why their malarial rate has not fallen. The three-fold method! of prevention—mosquito control, mosquito exclusion by mefens of netting, qtc., and the cure of infected cases to prevent the parasite being carried from old cases to new—could ba adopted in all tropical countries affected.

“But sanitation, alas ! is the Cinderella of public expenditure. You cannot persuade people that the ravages of malaria erst more than its prevention. Control should be undertaken by the Public, Health Departments of each State and not left to individuals, for while, say, one planter will spend time and money in ridding his area of ,the malaria-car-rier, his neighbour may negative all his work by carelessness or neglect. “Some good work in this connection was dtone during the war, and there is no reason why it should not done now, where possible, with the help of the military authorities as well as the Government. Unfortunately, very little is being dope, despite; the fact that between one and two million deaths a year, besides in calculable sickness, result from malaria.” 50,000 LIVES SAVED. Sir Malcolm Watson pointed enthusiastically to the Federated States as an example of what could be achieved when the' problem was tackled in the right way. “At Singapore,” he raid, “the; huge cost of tpe new naval base) would probably have been at least 25 per, cent, more, but for the saving effected by anti-malarial measures. Yeiar after year malaria there accounted for more deaths than we suffered in our own ’flu epidemic, in 1918, but since the- work was started by the local health authority, Dr. Middleton, and followed by Dr. Hunter, the malaria epidemic wave has practically disappeared, and 50,000, lives, it is estimated, have been saved. “But for this anti-malarja work, Pert Swettenham, the chief port of Malay, would undoubtedly have had to be closed down. This same, work, with very little time; for, preparation, permitted 40,000 workelrs to be sent into, the jungle to build there the big dam and power-house of the Perak Hydro-Electric Power Company. It is costing not more; than £lOO a month —and saving its cost a thousand times over. TWENTY VARIETIES. “The problem incidentally, is not an easy one mit there, for they have about twenty different kinds of Ajiopheline mosquitoes, all malariar-car-riers, with different habits to study and counteract. “But there,” he added, “we have the advantage of official conitnoil. While most of the work is undertaken in co-operation with the individual planters, the health authority can bring pressure to bear on any planter who is not attempting tq control his property in the proper manner, and even, if necessary, withhold labour, from him on grounds qf unfitnetss. Usually, however, a po’ite hint that his malaria sick-list is unnep.essarily heavy is enough to bring him round. Once the planters set their shoulders .to the task of controlling, the mosquito, emulation helps a lflt.”

Sir 'Malcolm was optimistic about his forthcoming visit to> India, he confessed, if only because/ the Congress at Calcutta, last year had! adapted unanimously a resolution declaring that mqsquit'o control was essential for all towns, mines, and plantations, and expert anti-malarial engineers and entomologists should be entrusted with the work.