Annual report / Medical Department, Fiji.

  • Fiji. Medical Department.
Date:
[1946]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report / Medical Department, Fiji. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/40 (page 7)
    (11) MALARIA CONTROL (ANOPHELINE PREVENTION). 56. Endemic Malaria and the anopheline mosquitoes which carry it, have not yet spread to the East of Longitude 170° E. Cases of malaria have been reported during the year under review, but these are all imported and the majority are relapse cases of benign tertian malaria— relics of the gallant excursion of the Fiji Military Forces to do battle in the Solomons during the recent war. 57. Regular peace-time interchanges of population between Fiji and the Solomons and other malarious areas make it virtually certain that there always will be the occasional gametocyte carrier in Fiji providing the tinder which will burst into an epidemic flare immediately the presence of anopheline mosquitoes provide the spark. For these very obvious reasons it has been necessary to continue energetic anopheline prevention measures in and around the main air and sea ports. 58. The sum of £65,000 originally granted from the Colonial Development and Welfare Vote had been expended by the end of 1945 and, though the large amount of permanent drainage which had been constructed went a considerable way towards making the position secure, subsidiary work in maintenance and some capital outlay in protecting existing works by regrading drains, preventing and repairing storm erosion and guarding against excessive scouring at outfalls was necessary. For these tasks a further sum of £14,430 was allocated and £13,300 was expended by 31st December. 59. The bulk of the work was done in the Nadi and Nausori Airports as neither could be neglected pending some decision as to which would be the sanitary aerodrome of the Colony. The Royal New Zealand Air Force seaplane base at Laucala Bay received only maintenance attention as a survey by the malarial engineer showed that to render even 400 meters round the perimeter free from potential breeding places would be prohibitive in cost. Reliance was placed, of necessity, on being able to hold aircraft on the water off the shore, until, or unless the airport health officer was satisfied that satisfactory disinsectization had been carried out. 60. In Suva Town work was mainly confined at the beginning of the year to a very small area of about 40 acres immediately adjacent to the wharves. Later, it was found necessary to include maintenance of previously constructed drains and water courses which indirectly affected the wharf area. This work of mosquito protection within the Suva Town area must come to be regarded as a civic responsibility. A great deal of the mosquito breeding has been found to be readily preventable but, regrettably, there has been little evidence to show that the general public realize the part they should play. Mosquitoes are traditionally regarded in Fiji as a nuisance and not a menace to health, and steps taken so far have not succeeded in awakening a true mosquito consciousness. It has to be recorded, almost with apology, that not one single prosecution was made by the authorities of the Suva Town Board for negligence in this regard despite a larval index in the town area standing at the dangerous level of between 19 per cent and 40 per cent. (12) IMMUNIZATION AND PROPHYLAXIS. 61. Immunization in respect of typhoid and smallpox is carried out by the health staffs in urban and rural areas. It was necessary during the year to intensify anti-typhoid inoculation in Suva, Navua and Levuka but no full-scale Colony campaign has been necessary. 62. Anti-diptheria immunization is available and is practised in the larger centres, but as the incidence of this disease in clinical form is insignificant, immunization procedure has been on a voluntary basis. 63. The use of convalescent serum in measles was not adopted as a routine procedure owing to obvious practical difficulties. It was successfully used in the Tuberculosis Hospital where, after one case had occurred in the institution, the remainder of the patients were given prophylactic serum and no further cases occurred. Ill—HYGIENE AND SANITATION. (1) ADMINISTRATION. 64. The administration of the Public Health Ordinance is vested by the terms of that Ordi¬ nance, in the Central Board of Health and is decentralized by the Board to Local Authorities. The system was fully described in the Annual Medical Report of 1945 and there has been little material change. 65. Prior to 1946 the affairs of the Suva Rural Sanitary District were administered by the Central Board of Health since, for some reason which is not entirely clear, no Local Authority for that heavily populated and important suburban area in the Suva Peninsula had ever been appointed. This was put right by the appointment, in March 1946, of a Local Authority charged with the administration of public health measures within the Sanitary District. 66. It was also possible to install the Chief Health Inspector, who is Secretary of the Board, in office premises within the Medical Directorate, so that the public health executive of the Colony is now centralized in the departmental headquarters and the Medical Officer of Health, Suva, is able to confine his attentions to the affairs of the town of Suva and the Suva Rural Area without the distraction of an ill-defined attachment to central, administrative functions. 67. During the year there have been healthy signs of growing activity among the smaller Local Authorities. Initiative is in many cases cramped by the lack of funds under the direct control of the Authority and office accommodation worthy of the name exists only in the towns of Suva, Lautoka and Levuka and the township of Ba. Clerical work for the smaller authorities is conducted by the technical health staff, a procedure which is wasteful of expert time and which must be replaced by a more orderly system as local Government activities expand.