Annual report of the Medical Department / Nyasaland Protectorate.

  • Nyasaland. Medical Department.
Date:
[1951]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Department / Nyasaland Protectorate. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    51. Ro new dispensaries were opened during the year. The main difficulty is lack of trained personnel, and until the lee-way has been made up it is necessary to resist requests for an increasing number of new dispensaries. An important factor however is the economics of building small units in widely separated and isolated areas. It is considered that this aspect can best be solved, once the staff shortage has eased, by forming small construction gangs who will work to a pre-arranged programme in the respective provinces. 52. Meantime the demand for increased services is being met to a limited extent by initiating -a system of scheduled domiciliary visits from existing Rural Dispensaries. The working of this system will be discussed more fully in the relevant section of this Report. Re-organization of the Leprosy Service 53. Following on a preliminary survey of the incidence of leprosy in Nyasaland, which was made during 1950, by Dr. J. Ross Innes, Government agreed in principle to the recommendations made in his report. Briefly, these were the establishment of a Central Government Leprosarium, the increased use of drugs of the sulphone series, and the development of out-patient facilities for the treatment of eases of leprosy of low infectivity. 54. During the year a suitable site for the Central Leprosarium was acquired in the Fort Manning District. This site of 2,500 acres was originally a tobacco estate which had reverted to the Crown in the early 1930’s. It is as near the ideal for its purpose as could be expected in a densely populated country such as Nyasaland. Re-named Kocira—a Chinyanja synonym for “ healing ”—preliminary work started during May when an African foreman began brick making. The British Empire Leprosy Relief Association gave invaluable assistance and through the good offices of the Association a Lay Worker was seconded to the Department and arrived in the Protectorate in October. During the last quarter of the year a water supply was developed, the construction of certain staff houses begi*n and the sites for other houses and for storage accommodation were cleared. 55. Supplies of sulphones, adequate for the treatment of all cases of leprosy whose treatment could be supervised by a medical practitioner, were made available during the year. The out-patient treat¬ ment of lepers has been instituted on a small scale. This aspect of the programme of control will be further developed during 1952. Mental Hospital 56. The building of the new mental hospital came to a stand-still at the beginning of 1951. This hospital is being built departmentally by the Public Works Department and the pressure of other work made it necessary to delay the work on the hospital for a full year. The work will be resumed early in 1952. The development of the service provided by the existing Asylum is referred to in an annexure to this Report. Work of Societies, Boards and Committees Advisory Board of Health 57. The Board met twice during the early months of the year and completed its survey of the sanitary services provided by the Blantyre and Limbe Town Councils. The Report of the Board on this survey was submitted to His Excellency the Governor on the 8th of May, 1951. 58. The very rapid growth of the two Townships, situated some five miles apart, has created a serious sanitary problem. The water supply provided by the Blantyre Water Board had been out¬ stripped by the post war growth of the population of the Township and the drought of 1948-49 brought into startling relief the precarious nature of the water resources. In Limbe the town’s water supply was derived from shallow wells and boreholes in an area of geological shatter. Sanitation in both Townships was in the main primitive and facilities totally inadequate. The system of pail latrines in vogue was imperfectly serviced and where water was available large numbers of septic tank installa¬ tions were being installed without adequate provision in the size of the plots for the absorption of effluents. The surface pollution is accordingly high and the surface water during the rains drains to the rivers traversing the townships. These rivers form the main ablution areas for the African population and possibly the water supply for certain domestic purposes. 59. A Shadow Water Board for the two Townships had been constituted during 1950 and Con¬ sulting Engineers were engaged to prepare a water scheme. The first stage of this scheme, now in course of construction, will be completed in July 1953 and therefore it was vitally important to start planning the system of sanitation that must inevitably follow the development of a reticulated water- supply. 60. After a full survey of the situation in consultation with the Town Councils concerned the Board recommended to Government as a matter of great urgency that sewage schemes should be prepared to serve initially the central congested areas of the two Townships and the residential area which had sprung up adjacent to the Water Board catchment area. It was further recommended that the health services of the two Townships should be fused and as a preliminary the sanitary bye-laws of the two towns should be revised and brought into line. The urgency of the inclusion of sanitary services within the schemes of development of African urban housing was stressed. 61. The report is under active consideration by Government and preliminary work on the zoning of services has begun. Central Labour Advisory Board 62. Senior officers of the Department attended three meetings of the Board during the year. The most important business transacted was the consideration of draft Bills dealing with African Employment and African Migrant Workers.