HUMAN DISEASES 555 



although treatment may not be continued long enough to effect 

 a complete cure of the infected of this generation. 



Gonorrhoea has proved particularly difficult to combat owing 

 to the need for long courses of treatment. Native women are very 

 unwilling to submit themselves to treatment, and many complica- 

 tions are due to neglect. Short-wave diathermy may prove useful 

 in reducing the time necessary for effective treatment. Much good 

 work has been done in townships by venereal disease clinics, but 

 ignorance of the distribution of the several diseases involved is 

 such that the whole question calls for serious study. Perhaps the 

 most complete system for treatment has been adopted in parts of 

 the French colonies. At Fort Lamy, for example, where the 

 incidence of syphilis is put at 80 per cent of the population, every 

 patient is given a numbered metal disc which is presented at each 

 attendance, so that his past record can be looked up without diffi- 

 culty. Statistical data are thus slowly accumulating. 



In the Belgian Congo persons suffering from syphilis or yaws are 

 obliged to present themselves at clinics at regular intervals so long 

 as any sign of the infection remains. Records are also kept of the 

 medical history of women believed, or suspected, to be syphilitic. 



OTHER DISEASES 



A number of other diseases, some recently introduced, remain 

 to be mentioned. Of these, pneumonia is one of the most frequent 

 killing diseases, as shown by clinical records at hospitals. It is 

 especially prevalent where there is a strong contrast in the seasons, 

 as in the Guinea lands where the onset of the cold harmattan is 

 regularly followed by a flood of hospital cases. Moreover, in areas 

 where development of labour has taken place, particularly on 

 mines, pneumonia is becoming of increasing importance. Recent 

 work in South Africa (Lister and Ordman 1935) and in Kenya 

 has thrown much light on the epidemiology and type incidence, 

 and the report of the South African Institute of Medical Research 

 for 1935 also records that the use of a mixed vaccine for the 

 prevention of pneumonia among native miners on the Rand is 

 giving encouraging results. 



Efforts are being made to control smallpox by vaccination, and 

 it is reported that native opposition is tending to decrease. Influ- 



