Report on the medical and health services / The Gambia.

  • Gambia. Medical Department.
Date:
[1954]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the medical and health services / The Gambia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    concern. It must be emphasised that the prevention of tuberculosis can never be tackled successfully on the one front of curative treatment, nor even is prophylactic treatment a complete answer. The successful solution must be one embracing treat¬ ment of the sick, prophylaxis for the most suspectible, and, most important, the improvement of housing and nutritional conditions, so as to increase resistance to the disease, and to do away with those conditions in which the disease may most rapidly spread. In other words, the solution is basically the improvement of environ¬ mental hygiene, in the broadest possible sense. This is obviously not only or even largely a matter for the Medical Department. It would be pleasing to be able to report that during 1954, improved medical facilities were accompanied by a greater consciousness in the public mind of the need for these other measures— unfortunately, this cannot be said. (9) Venereal Diseases, (a) Syphilis: A total of 1,000 cases were recorded compared with 1,117 in 1953. 533 cases were recorded at outstation dispensaries. (b) Gonorrhoea: 4,380 cases were recorded, of which 2,451 were from out¬ station dispensaries. This compares with 3,338 and 2,466 respectively for 1953. (10) General. Improved housing, improved domestic sanitation, the provision of an improved and well-balanced diet, and the control of the important insect-born diseases continue to be the most important health problems in the Gambia. It is axiomatic that a solution to these problems must go hand in hand with improved educational facilities and an improved agriculture, and that an improvement in the one without an improvement in the others may be disastrous. IV. VITAL STATISTICS. Returns of Vital Statistics outside Bathurst are still incomplete and unreliable and the following statistics apply to Bathurst only:— (i) Births and Deaths—Actual numbers:— Estimated Population, Bathurst, end 1954 ... ... ... 20,370 Live Births . 669 Still Births . 44 Deaths ... ... ... ... ... ... .. 343 Deaths under 1 year . 77 (ii) Number of births and deaths in Bathurst 1950 to 1954 showing natural increase:— Year. No. of Births. No. of Deaths. Natural Increase. 1950 803 356 447 1951 780 353 427 1952 710 298 412 1953 735 304 351 1954 669 343 326 N.B. It requires to be stated that an unknown number of births, deaths still births almost certainly fail to get registered, and included in the records,