Wau District

Fever Prevalent In

Administration Blamed for Failure to Control Spread of Malaria

IT is reported from Wau that malaria A is definitely on the increase in that locality, and there have been a number of bad cases of blackwater fever, which is the sinister attendant of malarial con ditions. The Administration is being criticised for its apparent failure to con trol the spread of malaria in the Wau district.

Malaria always has been present there; but it was hoped with the spread of sanitary conditions and the use of medi cal science it would be controlled, and perhaps stamped out. The New Guinea goldfield lies on a high plateau and is not subject to the humid malarial condi tions of the N.G. coastal districts.

Some critics say that the Health De partment’s representatives in Wau do not give nearly enough attention to the destruction or treatment of possible breeding places for the Anopheles mos quito.

Cases of Japanese river fever continue to be reported and the proportion of fatalities shows no diminution. It is generally accepted in Wau that the in fection comes from the bite of the Mocca parasite, which is picked up in the scrub in the kunai grass. The fever infection apparently comes through the bite of this creature, but only a very small pro portion of the latter appear to give the infection. Japanese river fever, of course, is a very old disease —it is said that it was known in the East a thousand years ago. In its early stages it seems to re semble malaria, but it tends to develop rapidly towards pneumonia.