Page 107 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (IV)_Neat

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Venereal Disease
The four medical departmental Heads in the Island approached His Highness over the increasing
prevalence of Venereal Disease and suggested stricter measures. His Highness agreed to treatment being
compulsory wherever infection was found, particularly when prostitutes were reported. All patients
would be given certificates showing their treatment and confirming them to be free of infection.
Treatment would be free for all classes, and as far as possible foreign prostitutes would be repatriated.
These measures, inaugurated in December, 1948, produced a quick response, and the onus of the work
fell largely on the Lady Medical Officer. On the whole it has been very successful. Numbers have
diminished in all sectors, and positive Kahn tests dropped by 300. The difficulty will be maintaining this
work on a high level of efficiency.

Ophthalmia
Eye disease is always prominent. In the town area it can be said that there is a general improvement
in eyesight and a diminution of advanced disease. More particularly is this so in the rising generation
and in wealthy well nourished communities. Poverty, malnutrition and ignorance arc the prime factors
to combat and which can produce devastating ophthalmic conditions which arc very often permanent. This
is annually exemplified in the very poor patients who come over from Hassa and the Trucial Coast with
eyes showing appalling ravages of the past. Twenty per cent, of out-patients and in-patients were treated
for all forms of opthalmia. 334 major operations were carried out as well as many minors.
Medical Conditions of Interest
Fractures and injuries reached the high figure of 580, of which 147 were admitted to hospital.
These arc largely the outcome of road accidents and building hazards, which call for great safety. Hernia
operations increase annually, and abdominal surgery was more extensive and presented some difficult
conditions to tackle. The most unusual disability was a long standing dislocated hip-joint in a youth due
to Osteomyelitis. An attempted open reduction with good joint exposure defied all efforts and only partial
benefit was obtained.
Penicillin has been used on a laigc scale, and again it should be stressed how very fortunate the
hospital is to have all drugs at its command to use for every kind of patient admitted.

Pulmonary Tuberculosis
This is being more recognised, and 1S1 patients were examined this year. A block of six beds
built for light and air has been the next step forward, and 32 patients were treated there after its opening
in May. The results of treatment show how still more rigorous must be the measures to combat this
disease. Patients are fed liberally on a rich diet with intensive Calcium vitamin therapy and cod liver oil,
but the fact still remains that on the whole they do not do well in this climate. These special rooms are
however in many ways ideal, and a more extensive trial may give better results.
The Laboratory and X-Ray Department.
Increasingly valuable work is being done here, and the X-ray plant has fully proved its worth. In
the laboratory, biochemistry has been developed, and culture work and Widals have furthered diagnoses
considerably. It is a very busy department and plans for a larger laboratory are in hand. An additional
fully equipped binocular Beck microscope was installed this year.
Lines of Development
A Public Health Department.

A School Medical Service.
Increasing medical aid to the villages.
The Bahrain Medical Congress
In November, 1948, over thirty doctors gathered together, drawn from Bahrain and the Persian
Gulf, to discuss certain leading medical problems. Papers were read, and discussions on each followed
over the course of one whole day. The subjects were: Industrial medicine, Streptomycin and T.B.
abdomen, the diarrhoeas, external Otitis, low back-ache and finally Chancroid.

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