Abstract
AN opportunity for immediate medical service—and especially, it would seem, for service by trained nurses—is indicated by an article by Dr. Ruth Young, formerly principal of the Lady Hardinge Medical College for Women, New Delhi, on "Medicine and Nursing in Ethiopia" (The Lancet, 797; June 17, 1944). Although it is difficult to assess accurately the incidence of particular diseases in Ethiopia, because no vital statistics exist, Dr. Young has been able to gather valuable information about the physique, diet and general health of the people. The physique of the people living on the plateau is fairly good, and they are strong and hardy. The common diseases are typhus, relapsing fever, pneumonia, venereal diseases, dysenteries, trachoma and such parasitic diseases as scabies, tropical ulcer, infestations with intestinal worms and malaria. Leprosy is fairly widespread; but tuberculosis is apparently not so serious a problem as it is in other parts of Africa, nor do diseases due to deficiencies in diet seem to be common. From what Dr. Young says there would seem to be as much need of agricultural and veterinary assistance as of medical help. The cows are poor milkers and, although goats are numerous, they are kept chiefly for meat and skins and are not much milked. On the other hand, any increase in production of animal food products would, it seems, be largely neutralized by the numerous fasts imposed by the Coptic Church, which, apart from a longer Lent than ours and other fasts, forbids the use of foods of animal origin on two days of every week. Butter, milk and eggs are included in these forbidden foods.
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A Medical Service in Ethiopia. Nature 154, 392 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154392a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154392a0