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MV Sign "E.A. Medical Research Council"
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MV Sijaona speaks
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SV PAN..delegates
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MCU Sijaona speaking
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MV Delegates
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MV & CU Truck spraying highway (2 shots)
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CU Spray
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CU Mosquito
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CU Snail (2 shots)
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CU Technician looking at parasite (2 shots)
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CU Technician looks at Tsetse fly
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CU Tsetse fly larvae
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MV Sijaona addressing the meeting, delegates listening
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Initials ES.1519 ES.1550



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The Tanzanian Health and Social Welfare Minister Mr. Lawi Sijaona, on Monday (24 Jan) opened the annual conference of the East African Medical Council in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam.

The Conference was due to spend five days studying especially the parasitic diseases which still affect millions of people and livestock in Africa, namely malaria, sleeping sickness and bilharzia.

In his opening speech Health Minister Sijaona said research activities should be as practical as possible, and not be treated as an academic exercise for producing theses and books.

SYNOPSIS: The five-day annual conference of the Est African Medical Council was opened in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam on Monday by the Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Mr. Lawi Sijaona. Its theme this year was that of parasitic diseases, such as malaria, sleeping sickness and bilharzia. All of these present severe public health problems in East Africa.

Malaria was historically the most serious problem, and its transmission by mosquitos was discovered in India. One of the preventive measures against it is the spraying of the mosquito breeding areas with insecticide.

The bearer of bilharzia, a chronic debilitating disease affecting thousands of humans in Africa, is a small snail with infests rivers, People pick up the disease when they swim or bathe in water containing infected bacteria.

The principal disease spread by the Tsetse fly, the scourge of East Africa, is sleeping sickness, which affects both human beings and livestock. Scientists studying the disease in the past have been dogged by the ability of the organism producing the disease, or develop immunity to various vaccines. Health Minister Mr. Sijaona welcomed research into the parasite diseases, but asked that it should be quickly passed to the workers in the field. Research should contribute to the alleviation of human misery, he said, and not be an academic exercise.