THE SLEEPING SICKNESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12269, 13 May 1903, Page 5

THE SLEEPING SICKNESS.

RAVAGES IN AFRICA.

By Telegraph.— Association.—Copyright.

London, May 11. Half the inhabitants on the shores of Lake Victoria Nyanza are suffering from sleeping sickness. Tremendous ravages are also being made by the sickness amongst the natives in Southern Kairroudo.

Dr. G. C. Low, who with Dr. Castellani and Dr. Christy, was sent out to Uganda on a Royal Commission to investigate the sleeping sickness, returned to England recently, and the reports which he and his colleagues have Bent to the Foreign Office and the Royal Society contain much new and important information on the nature of the disease and its alarming and continued spread. The disease has now been ravaging Uganda for four years, and Dr. Low estimates that 70,000 natives have died of it. How it got into Uganda cannot be discovered, but it is common in portions of Portuguese West Africa, and may have crossed the continent. The disease is practically invariably fatal. Moreover, the disease is increasing in virulence in the new areas. The natives are so terrified that they move from one place to another, and large areas are going out of cultivation. The " sleeping sickness" first manifests itself in a Blight change in the mental attitude of the victim, so slight that the relatives are able to perceive it before anyone else, even a European doctor. It attacks both sexes and all ages. Then the patient becomes dull in manner, next quite stupid, with a heavy- look about his face and swelling of the lips. A disinclination to work develops, and the patient lies about, taking less and less food. Lethargy, rather than sleepiness is the out- ' ward sign. Tremors of the arms and tongue succeed, and finally the victim falls into a comatose state, which ends in death. The Commission made its way to Entabbe, the seat of Government in Uganda, on the western side of Lake Victoria, and spent five months there studying the disease. A hospital had been specially erected by the Government, and Colonel Sadler, the Commissioner, and Dr. Moffatt, the P.M.0., rendered every possible assistance. Dr. Low and his colleagues treated their patients with various drugs, but without discovering a cure. Their utmost efforts only prolonged the existence of the patients, who ultimately succumbed. Dr. Low says that the disease is a nervous complaint, consisting of inflammation of the brain and membranes of the brain, analogous to ordinary meningitis, but tin usual treatment for meningitis has proved of no avail.