HC Deb 30 July 1957 vol 574 cc165-7W
124. Mr. Sorensen

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what progress has been made in the elimination of malaria and the treatment of leprosy and tuberculosis during the past ten years in British Colonial Territories.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

The following is the reply:

Malaria has been eliminated in the following territories:

Aden Colony, Antigua, British Guiana (coastal areas), Cyprus, Mauritius, Nevis, St. Kitts, St. Vincent, Singapore, Tobago.

and in the following territories projects aimed at its elimination are in progress or are being prepared:

British Honduras, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, North Borneo, Sarawak, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Zanzibar.

The problem presents many difficulties in the African territories and prospects there depend on the results of research and pilot projects now in progress.

There have been significant changes in the treatment of leprosy during the past three or four years, as the result of which there has been good progress in combating the disease. The prospect of further progress is good, but the problem is very large. Although maximum resources are being brought to bear on the problem, it is only one of many in the health field, and its solution will take a long time. Although leprosaria are still maintained for the segregation and treatment of acute infectious cases, provision is being increasingly made, as an alternative to long-term segregation, for outpatient clinics, rural dispensaries, and treatment centres to give out-patient treatment, using the sulphone drugs in tablet form, so that treatment is readily available to the patient without his having to cease work or be isolated. As a result the public attitude to the disease is rapidly changing, treatment is being undertaken voluntarily to an increasing degree. In Northern Nigeria there are now 468 treatment centres and 104,000 cases under voluntary treatment.

Tuberculosis is now regarded as the greatest medical problem in the overseas territories. Surveys undertaken during the past few years have disclosed the prevalence of the disease in many territories. Surveys are still being undertaken, particularly in the African territories with the assistance of the World Health Organisation. In some of the non-tropical territories, such as Cyprus, Gibraltar, and the Falkland Islands, there are indications that the disease is being successfully controlled. In Jamaica, B.C.G. vaccination campaigns undertaken are beginning to bear fruit, and there has been a significant fall in notification in Trinidad.

Increased facilities for treatment have been provided in Colonial Territories and have met with a ready response from the public. In Hong Kong, where partly owing to the large-scale immigration of recent years the problem is particularly difficult, the disease is the greatest single cause of death, but the death-rate is now falling. Attention is concentrated on the vaccination of children, and vaccine is available on demand to all private practitioners and midwives.

An important factor in the progress of the campaign against tuberculosis, is the attendance of doctors and other personnel from the territories at tuberculosis courses in the United Kingdom, and particularly the valuable work performed by the Consultant on Tuberculosis to the Secretary of State.

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