Annual report of the Medical and Sanitary Department / Sierra Leone.

  • Sierra Leone. Medical and Sanitary Department.
Date:
[1929]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Medical and Sanitary Department / Sierra Leone. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/118 (page 6)
    The following table shows the total number of new cases treated: — 1926. 1927. 1928. 1929. In-Patients : European African 132 3,315 149 3,544 157 3,535 147 4,431 Out-Patients : European African 2G2 64.236 568 76,874 532 83,417 448 97,505 Total 67,975 81,135 87,641 102,531 Deaths: European African 9 265 6 244 3 278 368 Total 274 250 281 375 Percentage of deaths to total number treated •40 •30 •32 •36 Showing an increase in the total number treated of 14,890. Subsequent attendances numbered 247,438, an increase of 53,182 on 1928. The .average number of attendances for each out-patient rose very slightly from 2-31 to 2-52. The following table contrasts the incidence of the prevalent diseases during the past four years. 1926. 1927. 1928. 1929. Smallpox ... _ 16 1 6 'Chicken-pox 64 64 135 274 Dysentery ... 193 299 272 343 Influenza ... 55 21 165 8 Malaria : Tertian 136 318 1 145 Quartan 11 4 3 12 Aestivo-.autumnal 240 4,549 5,240 1,858 Unclassified 3,362 — — 3,558 Cachexia — — 10 18 Blackwater 7 9 12 6 Whooping cough 102 92 84 136 Tuberculosis 172 156 97 136 Measles 6 12 52 112 Yaws 427 2,035 4,088 16,927 Pneumonia 102 179 263 188 Leprosy 37 75 129 431 (ii)—Communicable Diseases. Malaria..—The total number of cases treated was 5,597 as against 5,254. Instructions were issued that no case was to be returned as classified unless confirmed by microscopic .examination. This explains the difference in tabulation. Blackwater Fever.—Six cases were reported during the year, three Europeans with two deaths and three Syrians with one death. One of the European deaths was that of an independent trader in the bush, who was carried into an out-station in a moribund condition. Trypanosomiasis.—Only two new cases were reported during the year. .Smallpox—Six cases were reported. Chicken-pox.—A total of 274 cases was reported from all stations. The most extensive outbreak was in the Kono District, where a large number of villages was affecied. An epidemic with seventy-eight cases was reported from Batkanu. Dysentery.—There was an increase from 272 to 343 in the cases returned for this disease. Of these 144 were diagnosed as amoebic and one as bacillary.