146 



KALA-AZAU lOMMISSlON 



Infection of 

 Kiverain and 

 Inland 

 Villages 



Comparison 

 of number 

 of Cases in 

 Provinces 



(Jueslion of 

 Introduction 

 from 

 Abvsbinia 



most ht'avily infected are the 

 l^aiankwii was tlie only place 



disease on the Blue Nile beyond the regulation native procedure of jjurf^atives, drinks of 

 tannin, etc., cupping, both wet and dry, over the spleen, and l)listeiing or tiring, all 

 of which are used in cases of enlarged spleen, and fever. 



During the various tours, both riverain and inland villages were visited. Judging from 

 the nuinljer of cases found and reported tlic disease is unquestionably more coiiinion in 

 riverain villages. 



Of the various districts visited, beyond douhi the 

 Merakiz of Singa and Abu Naama. 



Practically all the cases found came from this area, 

 iu which more than one case was found. 



The villages of Tama and Beheiga nuiy be mentioned as of especial interest. 



These villages are situated about 200 yards back from the river on .\zaza soil, /.'■. a 

 light kind of soil, and about .500 yards apart. The ground has a natural slope on all sides 

 and trees are cleared away from the villages for a very considerable distance. In fact, 

 the sites would appear to be ideal ones, yet during the past six years the people have lost 

 so many of their relatives and children, from, they say, " Sinieih," that the greater number 

 of them have left the villages, and the remainder wish to go. This has been arranged for. 

 They state that the first year they came there they were healthy and well, but that then 

 the disease began and killed them ofl', as many as five in the year dying of it. 



On the occasion of my first visit I examined all the remaining people of the two 

 villages but could find no trace of the disease in any of them. Nor was I able to get any 

 information about the origin of the disease there, as to whether the first case had been 

 elsewhere, or in contact with an infected patient, or come from a village in which the 

 disease was present. 



In the village of Tama the Sheikh reports a case of mother and child being infected 

 and both dying, the mother showing signs of the disease one month after her son's death. 

 This is the only case in which there has been any record of more than one member of a 

 family being infected. 



The comparative figures of cases in various provinces are interesting. 



Captain Boustield, in his report last year, states that of 42 cases reported up to 

 May, 1909, 15 were from the Blue Nile. Of the 41 new cases reported by us during 

 1909-10, 36 have been seen or reported in Sennar Province. 



These figures are very striking, though the fact that the greater part of the time of 

 the Commission was spent in this province, may account for so few cases being noted 

 in Kassala Province, where only six weeks were spent, the reason for this being that 

 it was deemed better to devote the greater part of our time to, as yet, unvisited districts. 



The suggestion has been made that the disease is introduced into the Sudan from 

 Abyssinia. The arguments in favour of this as regards Kassala Province are justifiable, 

 though there is no evidence to show that the disease itself exists in Abyssinia. It also 

 might be ar-^ued that the habits of the Abyssinians would make them jjartieularly prone 

 to infection in a country in which the disease already exists. 



.\s regards Sennar Province I do not think that tiie disease can be attributed to 

 .\byssinian sources. The number of Abyssinians coming as far north as, say, Singa is 

 small, and certainly in no town on the Blue Nile is there anything like the colony of 

 these people that one finds in Kassala, Gedaref and Gallabat. 



The total number of Abyssinians in Singa is 14. which is a very small percentage 

 of the total populatitm of the chief town of Sennar Province. I think that a great deal 

 more evidence will be required in support of this theory before it can be accepted. 



