§ 14. Sir ROBERT THOMASasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what progress has been made in eradicating 1548 hook-worm disease among the natives of East Africa; how many cases were successfully treated during 1928; and how many European medical workers are engaged in coping with this disease?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the COLONIES (Mr. Amery)The Medical Departments of the East African Dependencies are fully alive to the importance of combating this disease. In addition to the ordinary activities of Medical Departments, special intensive campaigns against this disease have been undertaken in the past two years by the Medical Departments of Kenya and the Tanganyika Territory with encouraging results, and are still in progress. No returns of the number of cases successfully treated in 1928 are available, and such returns would in any case show only the number of cases treated at Government hospitals, and would not, indicate the scope or the success of the general efforts to control the disease. As regards the last part of the question, it is not possible to give any figure, as, while officers are from time to time deputed to undertake special work in connection with the disease, its treatment is part of the ordinary duties of all Government Medical Officers in the East African Dependencies.