View report page

28
MALARIA IN BRIXTON
On the 11th July and 11th August notifications were received
that a boy, aged 8 years, and a married woman, aged 27, living
in adjoining houses in Brixton were suffering from malaria. Both
patients were cases of indigenous malaria, and benign tertian
malarial parasites had been found in blood, films. Careful search
was made, on one occasion in conjunction with the Malarial Officer
of the Medical Research Council (Mr. P. G. Shute, M.B.E.,F.R.E.S.),
but no mosquitoes, either anopheles or culex, were found.
The boy spent one day in the summer of 1951 on the Isle of
Sheppey and the woman was in Nice in August, 1952. It is not
considered at all likely that either contracted the disease while
on holiday although faintly possible, but from the evidence available
one or the other, probably both, contracted the disease in
their homes. The boy was ill for nearly a month before admission
to hospital when he had typical ague attacks and had enlarged spleen
and liver. Blood smears were examined, the parasite found and he
soon recovered with treatment.
The woman had an attack of pneumonia just before the boy was
first taken ill from which she completely recovered as shown by
X-ray early in July. On the 1st August, however, she was taken
ill again and later on admitted to hospital where a blood smear
also showed benign tertian malarial parasites.
Living next door to each other It would seem likely that both
were Infected by mosquitoes which had bitten somebody recently
returned from abroad who was still carrying malarial parasites.
Neither had ever had a blood transfusion. It is not possible to
contract malaria except from an infected mosquito or possibly a
blood transfusion so that the mosquito was the object of search.
A. Maculipennis was the mosquito on the marshes round London
in past centuries which was responsible for the 'ague' then quite
common. These obtain their blood feeds mainly from animals, such
as pigs and cows, and overflow Into houses to bite human beings.
There is no marsh land, static water supply or water butt which
might form a breed site for A. Maculipennis nearby, nor for
A. Bifurcatus, but the third English anopheline A. Plumbeus might
be the culprit. This mosquito breeds In the hollows, forks and
crevices in trees, in fact, anywhere in a tree where a tiny puddle
of rain water can collect. They have been found in Hyde Park among
many other places, and they have been shown to be excellent
carriers of malarial parasites for therapeutic purposes when used
for the treatment of other diseases so that this mosquito could
well have been the cause. There are many trees large enough to
contain small pools of water in the immediate neighbourhood of the
area, but it is scarcely practicable to make a detailed investigation
of every likely tree.
The cases have therefore been classed as indigenous malaria
of unknown origin. More cases may, of course, occur, but so far
as is known these are the only two contracted in Lambeth for many
years, and it may well be many more years before another case is
notified.