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General Management. The inmates have put the hosh under cult¬ ivation growing a large number of various green vegetables. The garden is of the greatest interest to them, provides them with fresh vegetables, and give them mild exercise. Those under treatment do physical exercises daily, as the greatest difficulty is experienced in getting the patients to take violent exercise.
Seven of the inpatient women have been treated with Hydnocarpus nuts, half a drachm twice daily”.
The East.
In the east there is a colony of 25 at Gedaref. These lepers grow their own crops and are already self-supporting, but receive a supplementary ration from Government.
The South.
In the south there are seven leper colonies, all established within the past two years. These began as experimental centres, and it was considered prudent to limit the numbers to be treated until more could be found out about the value of treatment and the possibilities of extensive segregation.
The number under treatment during 1928 are given below :—
Bahr-el-Ghazal
Wau . . . . . . . . 94
Source Yubo . . . . . . 496 Yambio . . . . . . . . 65
Mongalla :—
Meridi . . . . . . . . 224 Yei . 114 Kajo-Kaji . . . . . . . . 75 Opari . . . . . . . . 56
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J.t became clear before the middle of the year that leper treatment was popular among the natives; that many responded to treatment, and that in some areas at any rate the patients could become self-supporting. The whole difficulty of dealing with large numbers is the prohibitive cost of feeding.
Where patients had already by the middle of the year made considerable cultivations, instructions were issued to admit patients to these places up to the limit which the Government grant and the local crops would support, and some 500 more lepers came under treatment than had been originally intended.
Up till 1926 the medical staff in the south of Bahr-el-Ghazal and Mongalla had been so heavily engaged on sleeping sickness that there had been no time for leprosy. A census taken in 1923 had revealed 200 lepers in Tembura district, mostly advanced cases, but in 1927 when a more leisurely census could be made,
1,000 lepers were detected, and the disproportionately large number of early cases was very striking. As detection of early cases became more expert the estimate for Tembura and Yambio districts of Bahr-el-Ghazal reached over 4,000. Similarly in Mongalla, where for years past, more accurate observation had been