Fighting Yaws in Fiji

rpHE Fiji Yaws Control Campaign J. is making excellent progress and it is estimated that at the end of the 3-years campaign, which started in 1954, yaws will have been wiped out in Fiji.

Yaws, in the colony, is confined broadly to Fijians and resident Pacific Islanders and responds rapidly to an injection of penicillin.

Because of its wide incidence (close to 50 per cent.), and the debililating effect it has upon the Fijians, a pro gramme of universal injection, under the auspices of WHO UNICEF, was decided on.

There are now five teams in the field.

There are 3 focal points of the campaign: • Dr. F. G. Tross, international adviser on yaws, is the centre of the field work in the “pilot area,” in the Savusavu district of Vanua Levu; • Dr. J. M. Whelan, international serologist, has his headquarters in the Central Pathological Laboratory, Suva; • The Statistical Centre and main store for drugs and equipment, which is the Suva office of Dr.

Verrier, Colony Director of the Fiji campaign, and Medical Statistician of Fiji.

Last year, Dr. Verrier represented

the South West Pacific region at the World Health Organisation Confer ence in Nigeria on yaws and similar diseases.

Communications between the vari out units of the campaign are carried on by radio-telephone, Gov ernment launch, UNICEF Land- Rover and Fiji Airways. Air com

munications are used for the speedy transmission of blood-specimens to Suva.

Surveys took place either in units, like villages, schools, estates, etc., or by way of house-to-house survey, as the situation requires. The head of the household is responsible for the attendance of all the members.