YOU have received from Mr. Tallach the Report of the work of the Mission and of the Schools. It only remains for me to give a brief account of the Medical work done in the last year. The general lines upon which this work has been carried on are the same as indicated in last year’s Report. The daily average of patients has been much the same as in my first months here; the increase in the work which I then anticipated has been very slight. From a Public Health point of view the health of the district in which we are placed can be regarded as good. There has been no outbreak of serious illness of any kind, with the exception of whooping cough at Bembesi. Consultations at the Mission Dispensary have numbered about 2,000, of these the most frequent have been cases of colds and influenza. Malaria which is a serious problem in most parts of this country is rarely met with here. Indigestion of an acute kind and rheumatism are frequent, as are also diseases of the kidneys and bladder. Malnutrition has produced few cases this year, food having been fairly plentiful. During the hot summer months diarrhoea is a common and serious condition among young children. Tuberculosis appears to be on the increase and in the pulmonary form takes a heavy toll of life and as an affection of the joints it causes incapacity in a considerable number of cases. Skin diseases, including pelagra, are common. A very large number of people, children and adults, are treated for various conditions of the eyes. The surgical conditions treated are mostly burns and injuries, the former being very frequent in children although not confined to them by any means. Of fractures only one case has been treated in the last year. On two occasions only have I been called out to cases of women in labour, one of these I had to take into Bulawayo hospital for operation.
Dental.—Extractions of teeth have been about 100.
In-patients.—Six cases have been treated as in-patients, they were pneumonia, two; syphilis, two; osteo-myelitis, one; cellulitis of hand, one.
Visits.—Many of the people seen in the consulting room were subsequently visited at their kraals. In all, visits were in the neighbourhood of 100 and were made within a radius of 14 miles from the Mission.
At Shangani and Martha Farm, clinics were held in the school buildings on the occasions when these places were visited. The attendance was usually between 40 and 50, the cases being largely the same as those mentioned above, except that malaria was more prevalent especially at Shangani. The bricks for the hospital are now in course of being made and I hope to be able (D.V.) to begin the actual building in the near future.