DISEASES OF THE TROPICS

Evening Star, Issue 18032, 28 July 1922, Page 8

DISEASES OF THE TROPICS

AN AUTHORITY INTERVIEWED. DR CILENTO IN WELLINGTON. This quarter of tho globe_ should- In 1 the richer' for the ■ investigations of Dr E. W. Cliento, the Medical Officer for Tropical Hygiene for the Commonwealth of ustralia” who arrived in Wellington on Sunday bv tho Ruapehu on his way hack to Melbourne (eays the ‘ Dominion ’). Dr Cilcnto has been absent on bis mission —tho. studv of the prevention and ,euro ot tropical disease, and hygiene systems in tropical countries —for the past two years. During that time ho has visited and made close 'investigation in New Guinea, the Dutch East Judies, tho Federated Malay States, Ceylon, Southern India, Egypt, the malaria and pollagro districts of Italy, England, tho cotton-growing areas of the United States, and Panama. ■ _ ,

When interviewed by a ‘Dominion’ representative, Dr. Cilento stated that for strategic reasons it was highly desirable that Australia should develop New Guinea, for it was a very rich country. It was almost inevitable that if Australia, did not d-evelon the country it would fall to the lot of others to do so. That being so, it was desirable to get the form of administration likely to bring about that development, and as good administration in a tropical country was largely a matter of srood health, be bad been asked to make these investigations. SAVING THE NATIVE RACE.

The greatest problem they had to face in New Guinea, was to save the native race, which at present was fast dying out. They were an economic asset to the country, and if they died out it was almost inevitable that some other colored race would have to be introduced to work the country in the future. So it was necessary to combat race deterioration as far as the natives were concerned, and at the same, time make the place as safe as possible for white people. Consumption was decimating the numbers of the natives. Just as we. through centuries of experience,* had become partially immune from the onslaughts of tuberculosis, the natives, with no such immunity, died from it like flies. On the other hand, whilst malaria, affected most white people, adult natives were practically (immune from it. There was, however, a good deal of infant mortality from malaria. In the districts of Omo and Pjj;iqiiidu, with a population of only 9,600, there were 282 more deaths than births in 1918. This was very bad, as it meant that tho people would become extinct in two generations. WONDERFUL PANAMA.

The chief tropical diseases to bo combated were malaria, philaria (elephantiasis), and hookworm. Wonders had hceu done in the subjection of malaria in some parts of the world, notably at Panama, where both' yellow fever and malaria had been eliminated in the Canal zone. It bad to bo remembered that the zone was a very restricted one, whereas New Guinea, the Dutch East Indies, and the Federated Malay States were enormous .territories, unexplored even for the greater part, and not capable of being subjected to the same treatment as the Panama Canal zone. At Panama, too, those responsible had the Treasury of the United States at their back, whilst other and more remote ciuntriea bad to go very slow where expenditure was concerned. Still, ho could not but express bis immense admiration for what had been done at Panama. After the amazing success achieved there, the Rockefeller Foundation, basing its work on the Panama effoTt, had commenced its valued work in the domain of tropical disease. Where from 500 to 1,200 had died per annum from yellow fever, the return was now nil : and such was the far-spreading effect of that clean-up that there were only two small 'districts—one in Peru and one in Brazil—that were now labelled dangerous. What bad killed yellow fever had killed malaria, with the result that Colon and Balboa were now extremely beautiful arradi well-kept holiday resorts. Through the success of such experiments the way to deal with the malaria-bearing mosquito had been shown. ■ELEPHANTIASIS. Another of their troubles was elephantiasis, the disease which caused imSense and unsightly swelling of the lower limbs. This disease was caused by the bite of the stegomyo mosquito, the great mosquito of the cocoanut groves, and so wherever the'cocoanut grew this disease was to be found. As far as he or anyone else at present know, there was no cure for it in tho native. White people, who did not take it so readily, sometimes got rid of it by a change to a temperate zone. What made this disease so difficult to bent was the fact that it lived in the lymph streams, not in the blood, and it was the blocking of those channels of moisture jibe freedom of which was essential to hearth) •which caused the streams to back up and swell. It commenced in the feet, and gradually crept up the lege to thp body, causing an immense swelling of tho tissue. Hookworm, which was known all over tho Islands, was quite another matter. There was a specific cure for it, but the trouble was that a, doctor could cure a man of hookworm one day and he would become reinfected the next. In the study of these and other froI pical diseases very valuable research work had been done by Dr F. W. O’Connor in the Fiji and Ellis groups on behalf of the London School of Tropical Diseases, and an endeavor was being made to link his work up with that of Dr Cileuto. THE GROWTH OF JAVA. Dr Oilento confessed to having been greatly impressed with the methods of *he Dutch Administration in the East Indies, and his report will contain suggestions which to a great extent are based on tne success achieved there. Under that regime, he said, the population of Java had increased from nine and a-half to fortythree millions in about seventy years, which was a very fine record, in Java, for instance, they had a system of training their own natives in the primitive forms of medical treatment, ami having been so tutored they were sept back to their native villages to become a sort of sanitary policemen with Government authority in their own little domain. Their duty was also to report any outbreak of disease, and to see that- the peoplo observed the sanitary law. Good work was -also being done as far as malaria was concerned in the Federated D**lay States. Dx Cilento has prepared an important report on his investigations, which be hopes to present at a conference to be held at Brisbane on August 9.