After the First International Conference on the sleeping sickness in 1907 I was sent to the Gold Coast in western Africa to study the disease and provide new ways for the British Government to combat the disease. Sleeping sickness is a vector-born, a parasitic pathogen, disease spread by the tsetse fly. The disease comes in multiple stages. The first stage’s symptoms include fever, itchiness, joint pain, and mild headaches. The second stage is how the disease gets its name because people who get to this stage have insomnia, numbness, and confusion. Reaching the second stage of the disease can be fatal, and this is when many deaths from the disease occur. Now, five years after the conference I believe I have some fresh ideas to help not just
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Overall, these recommendations from the convention have been slowing the spread, but without eradicating the parasite in tsetse flies the Gold Coast will always have a problem. One thing I believe we could do is to begin trapping the flies. Over the last decade there have been continuous attempts of this method in Principé with somewhat good success rates. I have also been talking to one of my colleagues T. E. Fell. He has been experimenting with what he calls clearing. Clearing would be the destruction of the tsetse fly’s natural habitat in the Gold Coast. Mr. Fell used native labor in a specific area of British people to test out his hypothesis. Then he cleared nearly 700 yards of all vegetation in this area.7 The reason for the full clearing can be attributed to our not yet full knowledge of the biology of a tsetse fly. Either one of these methods, clearing or trapping, potentially could be the best way to move towards eradication. These actions also would not affect people as much as the recommendations of the convention. We can also look to other places for ways to deal with sleeping sickness. Since the discovery of the tsetse fly vector there have been many different tests to try to quarantine humans from the vector. In Uganda there have been efforts to keep complete separation of humans and the fly.7 Pulling this together would take more effort than we can afford for these people, but it could be a possibility to keep on the table. Controlling the disease is one thing, but destroying it would be much more beneficial to both our economic and colonial interests. While we do need more research on both these methods, they would be easier to implement than any of the lazarettos or train stops that we are currently using to slow the
Overall, these recommendations from the convention have been slowing the spread, but without eradicating the parasite in tsetse flies the Gold Coast will always have a problem. One thing I believe we could do is to begin trapping the flies. Over the last decade there have been continuous attempts of this method in Principé with somewhat good success rates. I have also been talking to one of my colleagues T. E. Fell. He has been experimenting with what he calls clearing. Clearing would be the destruction of the tsetse fly’s natural habitat in the Gold Coast. Mr. Fell used native labor in a specific area of British people to test out his hypothesis. Then he cleared nearly 700 yards of all vegetation in this area.7 The reason for the full clearing can be attributed to our not yet full knowledge of the biology of a tsetse fly. Either one of these methods, clearing or trapping, potentially could be the best way to move towards eradication. These actions also would not affect people as much as the recommendations of the convention. We can also look to other places for ways to deal with sleeping sickness. Since the discovery of the tsetse fly vector there have been many different tests to try to quarantine humans from the vector. In Uganda there have been efforts to keep complete separation of humans and the fly.7 Pulling this together would take more effort than we can afford for these people, but it could be a possibility to keep on the table. Controlling the disease is one thing, but destroying it would be much more beneficial to both our economic and colonial interests. While we do need more research on both these methods, they would be easier to implement than any of the lazarettos or train stops that we are currently using to slow the