i8 7 
'TICK FEVER' IN MAN 
By CUTHBERT CHRISTY, M.B., CM., edin. 
LIVERPOOL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE 
SOON after reaching the Uganda Protectorate in July, 1902, I was informed by a 
native that in Toro (Western Provinces) there was an ' insect ' whose bite 
caused serious illness. He described it as a spider, and said that it came out 
of the ground. Upon instituting a search at one of the camping places, I had brought 
to me specimens of the tick figured in the accompanying plate. I subsequently 
discovered that this tick, known to the natives as the bibo, was fairly common in 
Usoga, Uganda, Budu, German Central Africa, Toro, Unyoro, and at Waldelai on 
the Nile. It is most easily collected by searching the dust and straw on the floors 
of the huts erected for caravan porters, or the houses of the natives, though in these 
latter it is not so easily found when the floors are kept clean. Near Kampala the 
natives collected them for me around the bases of the verical supporters of the roof. 
Their colour when alive is greenish-brown (see Plate XV). The largest 
specimens are about 8 mm. long by 6 or 7 mm. broad. On the dorsal surface of the 
eight-legged adults are from four to six coloured spots. The ticks are flat when 
unfed, and have several deep furrows on the back, but when distended with blood these 
furrows are less evident. They bite at night, and fall off when gorged. They are 
frequently carried long distances in mats or bedding, or in porters' loads which have 
been piled for safety in the rest-huts at night. Some specimens I collected at Fort 
Portal, in Toro, had been carried in bags of salt from Katwe at the north end of Lake 
Albert Edward, more than fifty miles away. 
The natives of the Protectorate, particularly in Toro, dread this tick, and know 
well the symptoms occasionally following its bite. In describing these, they invariably 
go through a pantomime indicative of vomiting, with pain in the head and abdominal 
region. They say that the above symptoms may last for several weeks, but are never 
followed by fatal results. The great majority of natives are immune and suffer no 
ill effects from the bite, presumably having been immunized by previous bites. 
1 examined several cases of illness amongst my porters and others, in 
which the above symtoms were prominent, without finding anything peculiar in the 
blood. The men in each case blamed the bibo. 
The worst case was one of my servants, a Swahili from Mombasa, where 
there is no Filaria perstans. Six days before being taken ill he had, contrary to his 
usual habit, slept in a native hut at a camp where the tick was very abundant. His main 
