At Mangaia
p. 80 · Read in the full issue
Incidence Of Filariasis
Prom Our Own Correspondent
Mangaia. May 21.
THE recent spell of very cold and wet weather here re-awakenei in our lymphatics the lurking filaria para site, with which probably every adult Mangaian is infected.
Upon this island the lymphatic obstruc tions do not develop to an elephantoid stage; but there is a sort of fever, very like that of the “rheumatic” variety, ac companied by great pain. It, apparently, does not endanger the lives or general health of the patient. The limb pains can be very severe, and in some cases the leg or arm cannot be bent at the joint while the parasite is active.
With the return of warm weather, the pains disappear, the reddened skin be comes normal again, and there is then a surface peeling that has some likeness to the aftermath of scarlet fever.
So far, no means has been invented for the destruction, in the bloodstream, of the mosquito-borne parasite from which all these troubles spring. An injection that would achieve this, without killing the “host,” has long been waited for, but Science seems to be baffled so far!
It is curious also that a trip to a cold country is recommended as a cure, or rather suppression, of the infestation; cold weather in the Islands is the very thing that brings the trouble on! What is the difference between a cold day in N.Z. and a Mangaian winter day? And why does an 80-degrea temperature re lieve the condition? It would be interest ing to have Science’s answer to these questions, often asked in Cl. (Ed. Note: An article entitled. “The Cause, Prevention and Cure of Filariasis” was published in “PIM” in August, 1944).
Mr. T. L. McAdam, who was Collector of Customs in Rabaul when the Japs in vaded, is now living in retirement in Perth, WA. He was one who had what he himself describes as “a very lucky escape”. When the “everv man for him self” order was given, he trekked from Rabaul out to Put Put, and there fell in with some soldiers and a radio oper ator. Thev were able to get onto the schooner “Poseidon”; thence they trans ferred to the “Leander”; and, although Jap planes infested the heavens, and an enemy air-craft carrier showed up on the horizon, the schooner was not molested, and they eventually reached Port Moresby.