SLEEPING SICKNESS [CH. 



have been enormously increased by the discovery that the 

 wild game may serve as a reservoir for sleeping sickness. When 

 it was discovered that the tsetse-flies along the shores of Lake 

 Victoria were infected, the government of Uganda ordered the 

 removal of all the population from the infested regions and by 

 means of stringent regulations prevented any persons living 

 on the lake shores or on any of the islands. Nevertheless three 

 years later the tsetse-flies were still infected with sleeping 

 sickness, although during this period they could not have had 

 the opportunity of feeding on the blood of any human being 

 suffering from the disease. It is evident, therefore, that the 

 wild game serves as an efficient reservoir for sleeping sickness 

 and as there is no possibility of exterminating all the mammals 

 in the infected regions, the idea of eradicating the disease in 

 this manner must be abandoned. 



Nevertheless, it is very important to prevent any infected 

 person entering a fly area in which sleeping sickness does not 

 already exist. The danger of this has been well exemplified 

 in the case of Uganda, where, owing to the entrance of a few 

 infected natives from the Congo, the disease was introduced 

 among the previously uninfected Glossina palpalis, along the 

 shores of Lake Victoria. Dr Bagshawe in his excellent article 

 on this subject, advises the removal of healthy persons from 

 the vicinity of the fly, or their protection from fly bites. This 

 may be effected in a variety of ways amongst which may be 

 mentioned the following : 



Whenever possible villages or markets should be removed 

 to fly-free areas as has been done in Uganda. In many districts, 

 however, the difficulties in the way of such a scheme are almost 

 insuperable, and even in Uganda it has not been found practic- 

 able to deal in a similar way with the infected districts near 

 the Albert Lake and White Nile. Needless to add, any camps, 

 whether temporary or permanent, should not be pitched in 

 the fly regions. 



All occupations carried on in fly-areas should be discouraged 

 or prohibited. The most important of these is fishing, as river 

 and lake-side natives usually spend all their time in this occu- 

 pation, unprotected by any clothes and constantly being bitten 



