Annual report on the Medical Department / Straits Settlements.

  • Straits Settlements. Medical Department.
Date:
[1930]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the Medical Department / Straits Settlements. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    33/136 (page 15)
    There are Rural Health Sisters in Singapore, Penang and Malacca under whom locally trained district health nurses hold maternal and child welfare clinics, do house and school visiting in the villages and kampongs, and in some cases maternity work. . The travelling motor dispensaries in the three Settlements co-operate in these duties, in addition to treating the sick. Details of rural areas in the Colony, 1930: — Area in Estimated square miles population Singapore 185 100,391 Penang Island 981 49.651 Province Wellesley 280 144,967 ^48 Dindings 183 19,068 Malacca 720 161,685 Labuan Add municipal area, Malacca which 281 6,156/ is staffed by part-time Government Officers — 44A35 M95 526,053 (b) GENERAL REVIEW OE WORK DONE AND PROGRESS MADE (I) Preventive Measures 1. Mosquito and Insect borne diseases.— Government provided the following votes for anti-mosquito work in 1930: — Settlement Vote Singapore Penang Malacca Labuan 120,000 95,000 33,000 7,000 Continued progress is being made in anti-malaria measures throughout the Island of Singapore. In the rural areas the policy adopted is to destroy the breeding places of dangerous mosquitoes within a half mile radius of the outskirts of the principal villages and kampongs. Anti-mosquito oiling is used as a temporary measure followed, when possible, by the permanent drainage of dangerous ravines and swamps. Periodic mosquito surveys are used as a con¬ trol, supplemented by spleen surveys, malaria case records, and the vital statistics of each district. More than 20,000 anopheline larvie were collected of which 35% were A. Maculatus, the chief malaria carrier in the rural area. 12.5 miles of subsoil pipes were laid at an average depth of 6 feet and 5 miles of main arterial open cement drains were constructed, permanently draining an area of 6 square miles. Seventy two thousand six hundred and five gallons of anti-malarial mixture, costing $14,715.31 were sprayed on potential breeding places to protect an area of 20 square miles. The total expenditure was $135,480.51 inclusive of $16,022.84 recovered for work done on private premises. From 1921 up to the end of 1930, approximately $806,359 have been spent on rural anti-malaria work in Singapore Island. The number of persons protected from malaria by this work, is approximately 52,000. The cost per head per annum is $2.20.