Report on the state of public health in Burma.

Date:
[1937]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the state of public health in Burma. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    27/212 (page 19)
    measures with any degree of success. Malaria is a health and social problem ; it must be attacked simultaneously from both these angles.” Of the truth of the above statement there can be no doubt. During the year the total number of deaths ascribed to fevers in the districts of Burma was 118,276, which gives a ratio per 1,000 of 9‘77 as compared with a five-year mean of 7’42. It is thus probable that approximately 59,000 people died from malaria during the year. While this disease is prevalent throughout the length and breadth of the land, there appears to be definite evidence that it is worse in -certain areas than in others, notably in the foothills of Arakan, Tenasserim, Southern Shan States and the northern border districts where dense growths of jungle, stagnant collections of water and abundant rainfall produce conditions ideal for the breeding of mosqui¬ toes. , While the problem is particularly acute in these places, it is only a degree less pressing elsewhere in the country where cultivation of wet crops gives facilities for the breeding of mosquitoes. Shwebo District.—There was an increase in the number of deaths in the townships of Taze, Ye-U and Kanbalu, and the District Health Officer suggests that these may be due to the hyperendemicity of malaria in these areas. Minbu District.—Malaria was prevalent in all the townships of this district, during the year 4,230 deaths from fevers were reported, as compared with 4,052 in the previous year. Most of these deaths were probably due to malaria. In this district the townships of Sidoktaya and Ngape which lie in the foothills were the worst affected. Prome District.-—Hospital figures show that malaria was on the increase during the year 1937, more especially in Prome and Padaung Townships. It should be emphasized that, though the above districts have been chosen for special comment, malaria continued to be very common throughout the whole country. In the towns of Burma deaths from malaria totalled 2,326, constitu¬ ting 4*94 per cent of the total mortality in urban areas. The rate 1'65, is a rise of 0‘28 over the previous year and 0'44 in excess of the five- year mean. Deaths from malaria registered in the towns of Burma by months are compiled in the Public Health Department, and when we consider this we see that the largest number of deaths occurred in the month of December when 342 were recorded. Statement YI-B (a), supplement to Annual Statement VI-B which occurs in the statistical / report of this Department, shows that high rates were reported from Lashio, Mydkyina, Tavoy and Bhamo. It will be noted that all these places belong to the wet and hilly parts of the country. The Control Of Malaria.—The paramount importance of attempting to do something to combat this disease has long been recognized by Government. Handicapped as it has been by lack of