PLAGUE-RIDDEN CEYLON

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18661, 22 March 1935, Page 11

PLAGUE-RIDDEN CEYLON

MALARIA KILLS THOUSANDS CHILDREN DRAG BODIES TO GRAVES OTHERS'.BURIED ALIVE COLOMBO (Ceylon). (Vvlon. the "pearl garden" oi' the Indian Ocean, is a plague-ridden land of apathy and honor. More than 12.0C0 people are dead and at leasl one million -one-sixth of the island's population—are afflicted by the ravages of a mysterious '.'green genu malaria," a malady now to British medical science. Children under 15 are seen dragging their dead parents to graves, and entire villages are prostrated with an overwhelming torpor, the inhabitants unable to help themselves and resigning themselves to death. Authorities have barely made headway against the ravages of llie disease. Workmen have, been rushed to every swamp and pool in the 25,000 square miles of Coy lon, oiling the waters even to the smallest rivulets, .Medical officials do not know how to fight the strange germ which has brought such havoc to one or the most densely populated spots on earth. DOCTORS WORKING DAY AND MIGHT Day and night doctors -work in laboratories, struggling against the germ. Cnlike the ordinary malaria germ—which stains red—this virulent organism shows a green stain under microscope. An urgent appeal has been sent to Lieut.Col. Sydney Price-James, of the Britjsh .Ministry of Health, a world authority on tropical diseases, to come here from London. Except in the most remote villages, .far up m the Dumbulla region—once malaria infested, until British engineers broke the plagues with modem drainage the death rate has been slowly falling off.

SCENES OF APPALLING HORROR 1 witnessed scenes of appaling horror ill thesV villages. I saw sick and dying men and women burying their children. I saw sick children carrying their mothers and fathers to burial ditches.

One group of exhausted medical workers, calling at the village of Arama, entered a house where a 12-year-old girl was lying on the floor, covered with a death sheet.

The mother and father stood by beating their hands in grief. The doctors found the child still was alive, and took her to a hospital. The ignorance of the people is one of the hardest tilings doctors have to fight. So great'is their fear that they undoubtedly have buried manv victims alive.

In the village of Kululgama, which has only 45 families, 55 persons were. dead and most of the others were sick. CHILDREN BURY THEIR PARENTS Tn another village 1 saw three children, ranging from 12 to 14, dragging to the burial ground a wooden coffin in which lay the body of their father. The same children previously had buried their mother without assistance from the other villagers, who were prostrated with the "green death." Twenty years ago Lieut.-Col. PriceJames discovered on this island more than 50 species of mosquitoes, 17 of which were dangerous to life. In the years since, then the majority of Ceylonese and the native Shinhalese -who are chiefly Buddhistic and tinder the tolerance of that faith drink alcohol freely—seemingly have been > immunised to malaria.

But the "green demon" has mowed down the strongest of them. It lias levelled adults and children alike. Whole families have died; within a few hours under the same roof. STARVATION FACES PEOPLE,

Meanwhile a second plague—starvation—faces ,the populace. Food reserves have been depleted and communication disrupted. Even if Ceylon recovers soon from the ravages of the "green plague." it will be a dozen years before it will recover from the accompanying ravages of famine and ruined fields. Thousands of households were in acute need of food, for which the relict fund—now about 83.450 rupees—is miserably inadequate. Hospitals are choked with sick and dying and temporary stations have been built to help care for the overflow. A decline in the number attending dispensaries has been reported by officials, but even this is not over cheering. Medical men say the "green germ" is more tenacious than any other form of malaria, and they expect many relapses. It is proposed that a levy of one day's pay on all Government 'servants be made, to replenish almost exhausted relief funds. Death rolls cannot be checked accurately, but the toll is believed to approximate 12,000. which officials described as "a record."