CURRENT LITERATURE It is intended that the current literature shall be dea lt with in this departm,ent. It is a function of the Contributing Editors to provide abstracts of all articles published in their t erritories, but when neces­ sary such '/1w lerial ft'om oth er sources is used wh en procurable. KRAMCHANINOV, N. Ji'. [On the history of the study on leprosy in Russia. The work of ~ P. Simontovskii. ] Vestnik Dermatol. i Venerol. 33 (1959) 61 -62. P. Simontovskii, in 1796, studied the leprosy situation in the town of Uralsk, whet'e he found about 70 cases. His descriptions of these cases give us a rathcr detailed clinic picture of lepromatous leprosy, anesthesia, plantar ul cers, stcnosis of the larynx, deformity of the nose, etc. H e stressed the fnct that leprosy is a contagious disease, and recommended the establishment of special houses in which to pln ce the patients. His work "The Description of the Disease Elephantiasis" was received by the Medical Collegium, but was not published . The author of this article discovered this work in the nrchives of the Medical Coll cgium.- N. TOR-SUEV I NNES, J . R. Ru ss i ~1Il papers on leprosy. Leprosy Rev. 31 (1960) 278-282. The author considers materilll suppli ed by Prof. N. A. Torsuev, of Ro. tov-on-Don. This consists, first, of Torsuev's own ll ssesslli ent of Russilln literature, which contains infol'mlltion on the basis of leprosy work (dispensa ries of the health service ) , and notes on special studies-in cluding observation of the early reactions by Stein and Steperin in 1931 (antedating Fernandez by several years), and a paper on acute fwd chronic vaginitis of leprosy. The other is an amllysis by subjects of a bibliography, which lists 1,975 items in Russian and 664 items in other languages.- H. W. W. [KgNYA] Medical Department, Colony and Protectorate of K enya, Annual r eport for 1958. Nairobi: Government Printer, 1959. Surveys in thp NYll nza Province made in 1957 showed an incidence of 10 per mille, with approximately 10% lepromatous. This gives a total of ahout 20,000 cases in the province (N yanza Province has the highest incidence of leprosy in K enYfI ). In 1957, 1,072 outplltients and 218 inpatients had started treatment; in 1958, the number were 813 outpatients and 349 inpatients. No figures are given for those under treatment nor for cured cases.- J OnN GARROD [KENYA] Ministry of Health, Colony and Protectorate of K enya, Annual report for 1959. Nairobi: Government Printer, 1960. Consideration was given to the establishment of treatment villages. The first village built wa s burned down. The policy of building up a treatment and preventive program based on the normal.health:,cwganization has been followed. There are 2 leprosaria, one at Alupe in Nyanza Province and one at Tumbe in the Coast Province. Surveys indicate a total of 25,000 cases, with 20,000 in Nyanza Province and 2,000 in the Coa t Province, giving prevalence rates of 8.4 and 3.6 per 1,000, respectively. The incidence of leprom­ a.tous leprosy in Nyanza Province is .74 per 1,000 of the population. There were 1,071 new outpatients and 246 new inpatients.- JoHN GARROD [UGA NDA] Annual report of the Mediclll Department for the year ending December 31, 1957. Entebbe, Government Printer, 1958. The estimated total of leprosy cases is 70,000. The prevalence varies from 13 to 43 per 1,000, heing highpst in the Eastern Province and in the foothills of the Ruwenzori 237 238 International Journal of L epr'osy 1961 Mountains in Westel'll Province. Treatment is mainly by oral sulfones, di stributed through 5 leprosal'in I'un by missions and 73 treatm ent vi ll ages run by com munal effort with matching assistance from the territorial government. A total of 30,000 cases were under treatm ent. Investigations into epid emiol ogy continued. District councils, missionary societies, the British Leprosy Relief Association, and the territorial government cooperated well. Assistance with drugs and equipment wa s received from U\fI CEF. Special grants for leprosy work f rom the territorial govel'l1m ent for recurrent expendi ­ ture were £7,775 and £1,000 for capital expenditure.- JOT-TN GARROD [UGANDA] Annual report of the Medical Department fo r the yem' ('Ilding Decf'll lber 31, 1958. Entpbbe, Govel'llm ent Printer, 1959. 'Of the estilll llted total of 70,000 cascs of leprosy, 9% are considered lepromatous; 19% of nil cases were children; 32,217 were attending for treatment; 14,549 wcre f rom Northcl'l1 Province, 3,910 from Buganda, and 3,597 from Westel'll Province. Acco lll ­ modation wa s availabl e for over 4,000 in 73 treatment villages, and for over 3,000 in 5 settlements run by missions. There were 9,959 new patients, and 1,764 had been dis­ eluuged as cured. Special govel'llm ent grants for' capital and r eCUl'l'ent expenditure totalled £8,942, a slightly greater amount than in 1957. Two treatment vill ages were cl03ed because no longer needed, and 2 others were opened elsewhere. Mi ssions, territorial govel'll men t, local councils, UNI CEF and BELRA continued in close coopera­ tion. Investigations into epiilemiology were co ntinued, using a especia ll y mod ifi ed lepl'omin.- JoHN GARROD [EAST AFRICAN I NSTl'l'U'I.'E FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH.] Annual Report 1959-60. East Africa High Comm ission, 1960. On e th ousa nd two hundred cases of leprosy in two leprosaria were examin ed especia Il y for eye lesions, which were found in 111 cases, some of which had multiple lesions. The commonest conditions were keratitis (48 cases), irititis (35 cases) and lagophthalmos (21 cases ).- J oHN GARROD [ZANZIBAR] Health Department, Zanzibar Protectorate, Annual Report for 1958. Zanzi­ bar, Government Printer, 1959. --- Idem. Annual report for 1959, Ibid., 1960. There are two leprosaria, Walezo in Zanzibar, maintained by the Gove rnment and staffed by the local Roman Catholic Mission, and Makondeni on Pemba I sland, which is a governm ent institution. Each ca n accommodate approximately one hundred patients. In addition, outpatients are treated at rural health centers. The total under treatment at the end of 1956 was 180, at the end of 1957, 156; at the end of 1958, 83; and at the en d of 1959, 100. The hope is expressed that it will soon be possible to close one of the leprosaria. In 1D58 there were 55 new cases; in 1959, 44.- J OHN GARROD [QUE~~ KSLAND] Annual report of the Health and Medical Services of the State of Queensland for the Year 1959-60. Brisbane, GoveJ'l1lllent Printer, 1960. On August 5, 1959, the patien ts were removed from P eel I sland, which had been in operation since 1907, and were housed in a speciall y converted building in the Chronic Diseases Section of the Princess Alexandra Hospital in South Brisbane. An outp:-ltient clinic is also held there once a week. What with 5 patients di scharged to "home i ·olation," there were onl y 6 regulars left-of which 3 were eligibl e for discharge but allowed to remain. At Fantome I sland, the · leprosarium for aboriginals under the F ranciscan Missionaries of Mary, the number is also reduced, fro1]1 23 to 17. Some of the patients have been temporarily transferred to Townsvill e Gener~L HospitaJ.- H.W.W. 29 , 2 Cur'Tcnt L i t cr'o fur e [ \" ESTER~ AUSTRALIA] Report of the Commissioner of Public H ea lth fo r 1958. Perth : Go \'e rnment pJ·inter. - -- Idem, 1959. (1 ) The usufl l tllble sholl's that of th e total of 150 patients rem::unll1 g in the leprosariu m at the end of the yellr, 92 were males Ilnd 58 females. Of the 41 cases admitted (30 males and 11 females ), 20 were rendmissions (said by Davidson, in the special article noted hel ow, to have been mostly f wn1 the earlier days of chelll otherapy wh en the effects of the sul fones 11lld been over-estimat('d, Il nd when dischn rge' were mll2e earlier than now .) There had been no absconding, and no patients hnd been dis­ charged " Il oninfectious," onl y "cured," of whi ch there had been 59. (2 ) ,Yith no discussion onl y th e usual tllbl e is given, which shows the number r Cllln ining nt the (' nd of the yellr to have been f urther reduced to 126. Admissions had tota ll ed onl y 24 (14 ma les and 10 femnl es), of which 13 w('I'e rea dmissions. The number di scharged (all "cured") was 45.-H. "W. IV. ])AVID SO~} IV. S. Leprosy report. In Report of the Commissioner of Public Health [\Vestern Australia] for the yea r 1958. P erth, Government Printer, 1959, pp. 60-62. Chemotherapy Iwin g' a post-war introd uction, which has revolutionized trea tment and [llso management nnd pl'Pvention, the last 12 yeA rs of work are r eviewed. Introduced among the aborigin al. ' nhout the tum of the century, leprosy is a co mpHratively new di . ease nmong a nonimillune population and therefore shows a probably truer picture than is seen el. ewhere a ll lOng semi-imlllune peoples. Defin ing lepromatous leprosy II bacteriologicall y positive, lepl'oillin negn tive, find hi stol ogica ll y with predominAn ce of vacuolated hi stiocytes and lepra cell s, and tubercul oicl leprosy as barteri ologicall y negativ e, lepromin positive, and with tuberculoid structure of the lesions, then there are at ]Pllst 3 lepromatous cases for every tuber culoid case.