Report on the prevention of malaria in Cyprus / by Sir Ronald Ross ; presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of His Majesty.

  • Ross, Ronald, Sir, 1857-1932.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report on the prevention of malaria in Cyprus / by Sir Ronald Ross ; presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of His Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    reason for tliis appears to me to be that the water of the stream is used with the utmost economy and is not allowed to lie about any- where. Each field receives its proper allotment during one or two days in the week, after which the fertilising flood is turned into other fields. On the other hand, at Dicomo there appears to be severe malaria due to a small marsh of utterly waste water from a stand-pipe. Thus we have the antithesis of a useless water causing malaria in one place, and an extensive useful water causing none in another place. But where the available water is in excess the villagers did not appear to economise it so carefully, with the result that local malaria is caused. (2) My studies of the reservoirs west of Famagusta entirely confirm the findings of the Commission. We found no anophelines in the reservoirs, and they did not seem to be suitable for them, because of the fish which they contain, unless they are allowed to become weedy round the margins later in the season. It is true, however, that there was a high spleen-rate in Prastion, Gaidhoura, Kouklia, and Kalopsyda, and a very high spleen-rate of 100 per cent, at Akhyritou; but I could not attribute these to the reservoirs, and think that they are due to marshy pools somewhere over the flat adjacent areas, and to the causes mentioned in the Commission Report. At Akhyritou we found many anophelines in the village marsh below tlie reservoir, and the long channel which runs through the marsh and takes the escape water of the reservoir down to the sea was so full of weeds that it might become dangerous later in the season. The marsh is used for brick making by the villagers, and is, I think, the principal source of the high malaria rate amongst them. There is also a small marsh at Kouklia, and Kalopsyda is open to the great flat plain lying to its north. In fact this plain is so open in all directions that very small breeding pools upon it may possibly furnish mosquitoes which would be capable of travelling miles to the nearest village. There was also a small pond at Gaidhoura, which, though apparently quite isolated from any other waters, contained plenty of small fish, but may breed mosquitoes later in the year. I think that the malaria in this district is caused in precisely the same manner as the malaria in the other villages, namely, by the local breeding; and that it can be removed simply by the same methods, without interfering with the irrigation reservoirs, except as regards keeping their edges clean of weeds. While we were at Akhyritou, the Public Works Department started an experimental treatment of the marsh with a fund allowed at my request by the Acting High Commissioner. The weeds were cut by a weed cut- ting chain, and the banks suitably drained. (3) The only anophelines which we found in the Famagusta area were those in the large lake to the west of the town; but I doubt much whether this lake really affects the town itself. There used to be a marsh in the moat; though this has recently been drained; and I suspect that it was this marsh which has main- tained the spleen-rate of the town, amounting to 325 per cent, in the Mohammedan school. Possibly also the numerous wells in the town and in Varosia are responsible for this spleen-rate—which appears to be rather high for the amount of breeding surface found