African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 53: Chapter 49 Disease Prevention and Control

December 7, 1866. East African colony.

Great Lakes Region (Lake Victoria), Mwanza.

Nowadays, the Great Lakes Region is the second most populous area in the East African colony after the Upper Marine District, located next to Mwanza Bay of the Great Lake (Lake Victoria).

The Great Lakes Region has abundant water resources, fertile land, and a mild climate. Lake Victoria is formed by basin water accumulation and is the source of the Nile River. It lies between the East African Rift Valley zones, and the southern shore of the Great Lakes Region is currently under the control of the East African colony, while other areas are in the hands of the indigenous people.

The first primitive fishing industry in the East African colony also began here, using simple dugout canoes to catch fish in the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) as a supplement to their diet.

Today’s Great Lake (Lake Victoria) is not like the future where the introduction of Nile perch farming led to ecological diversity damage.

So the characteristic freshwater fish in the Great Lake are relatively diverse, and the unpolluted lake water makes them safe to eat.

The Great Lakes Region is one of the more humid and rainy areas in Africa, and the large area of Lake Victoria directly alters the local climate.

In sub-Saharan Africa, humidity is not necessarily a good thing, as future Nigeria and Congo became hotbeds for tropical diseases.

In East Africa, mosquitoes are also very troublesome because the equator passes through the middle of Africa. In most parts of Africa, the temperature remains above twenty degrees, making it suitable for mosquito breeding year-round.

Malaria, dengue fever, and other infectious diseases are transmitted by mosquitoes as vectors to humans.

In the future, East Africa is a heavy-hit area for malaria and various diseases, and apart from the low medical level, the biggest issue is the overabundance of mosquitoes.

In his past life, Ernst worked in Tanzania. Although protective measures were relatively good, there were simply too many mosquitoes in Africa, resulting in Ernst contracting malaria twice.

That was already in the 21st century; one can imagine the horror level of Africa in the eyes of Europeans today, even with mosquito nets and mosquito coils as blessings.

So far, European countries’ colonies in Africa are mostly narrow coastal plains, and they dare not go inland.

The Ottoman Empire holds the largest land area in Africa, mainly in North Africa and Ethiopia; the second is the Portuguese, who developed the colonies in Angola and Mozambique; the third is the French, mainly concentrated in small amounts of land in North and West Africa; lastly is the British Cape Colony; other countries like Spain and the Netherlands are negligible.

Thus, Ernst’s East African colony is already unique in Africa as the first colony to penetrate deep into the African inland plateau.

The Portuguese colonies are also quite large, but their management is rather crude, using native tribes to control other native tribes, stirring trouble everywhere, and ultimately reaping the benefits.

Although the East African colony is as black as any crow in the world, Ernst indeed manages it as his own home. Despite sacrificing the interests of the indigenous people, it facilitates future immigration, intending to stay for the long term.

Comparing Portuguese colonies to the East African colony, it’s not too much to say they’re fishing by draining the pond. It’s just that the current environment allows Portugal to get away with it. After World War II, with encouragement from the US and Soviet Union, African countries would still drive out the Portuguese eventually.

Of course, that’s the history from a previous life. Who knows, in this world, it might be annexed by the East African colony. In any case, Ernst won’t let Mozambique off the hook. As the saying goes, how can one allow others to snore beside one’s bed?

The Portuguese have a criminal record; they had ideas about the Zanzibar Sultanate but ended up getting a heavy beating.

Portugal also ventured into the Zimbabwe and Zambia areas a few years back but withdrew due to disease outbreaks among the indigenous people.

So, sooner or later, the greedy Portuguese will make a move on the East African colony. Ernst must keep an eye on them; if the East African colony develops smoothly, then it is the Portuguese who will worry about their own colonies.

With annual temperatures above twenty degrees in East Africa, mosquitoes freely breed, and various viruses are quite active.

Currently, diseases pose the biggest threat to immigrant survival, so addressing the sanitation problems of the East African colony has always been a major issue.

This includes strict management of water sources near residential areas, prohibiting any actions that would pollute the water.

Clearing environments suitable for mosquito breeding, such as shrubs and puddles, by burning or burying.

In large bodies of water, introduce natural fish predators to control mosquito larvae populations.

In the East African colony, dealing with diseases like malaria is like a lottery, drawing out the unlucky among the immigrants. Fortunately, quinine already exists in this era.

Ernst specially introduced quinine tree species from South America to suitable places in East Africa for cultivation, alongside various traditional herbs,

Western medicine is still rather mystical at present, not fully mature, with bloodletting still a mainstream treatment method for contemporary doctors. As late as 1833, France still imported over forty million leeches.

Fortunately, more and more scholars are beginning to question and oppose traditional Western medicine theories; Ernst is right at the transition from traditional to modern medicine.

The 19th century marked the start of a rapid development era for Western medicine. Companies like Merck (USA in 1816), Pfizer (USA in 1849), Novartis (Switzerland in 1859), Bayer (Germany in 1863), Glaxo (UK in 1873), Sk (UK in 1875), Abbott (USA in 1888), and Roche (Switzerland in 1896) were founded, ushering humanity into the age of Western medicine.

It’s undeniable that countless medical breakthroughs may be emerging in some European and American medical laboratories, destined to replace traditional medicine in the coming decades completely.

However, this process is lengthy, continuing into the 20th century until the great hall of modern medicine is fully established.

Despite rapid advances in frontier medicine, the mainstream clinical medicine of the current era remains in the hands of these traditional ”old Western doctors.”

These yet-unreplaced ”old Western doctors” have an understanding of diseases, bacteria, and viruses still stuck in the previous era, lacking concepts like anesthesia, hemostasis, and disinfection in surgeries, leading to some outrageous medical accidents.

Ernst dared not gamble with them, so the mature and low-side-effect remedies are more reassuring.

Besides obtaining some local herbs from the East African natives, he also searched for some mature and reliable medicines from Chinese and Western medicine.

For example, quinine, artemisia annua, etc., effective against malaria, but Ernst is not a medical student and doesn’t understand how to process these medicines.

But having medication on hand is better than none if a colony immigrant, unfortunately, contracts malaria.

They can only boil these two into a decoction to drink. It’s not that they don’t want to use extracted medicines; the cost is just too high. The colony is vast, with a considerable population, and various expenses are significant. Apart from labor costs, growing medicinal plants incurs almost no extra costs.

The land is readily available; as long as the environment is suitable, they can plant as much as they want, whereas the price of ordering medicine from Europe is high.

At present, the most effective means to prevent infectious diseases in the East African colony is still isolation; once a problem is discovered, isolate it separately.

Those with good immunity pull through, while those who don’t will, unfortunately, perish.

Of course, Ernst also procured some medicines, but due to transportation reasons, most medicines are in the Upper Marine District, closest to the seaport.

The inland regions lag in supplies and medicine, so this requires colonial settlements inland to be more proactive than those in the Upper Marine District.

Organize immigrants to conduct hygiene cleaning activities, planned management of garbage and excreta, eliminate mosquito habitats, and plant mosquito-repelling plants (East Africa is a place of pyrethrum production)...

Maximize the prevention of infectious disease spread. In the current era, it can be said that the East African colony immigrants have a world-leading concept of hygiene.

They may not know what hygiene is, but they know their superiors require them not to litter, eat indiscriminately, or urinate and defecate everywhere...

These are all enforced by the colonial management, and those who violate will face severe punishment.

The colonial management itself also doesn’t have much of a hygiene concept, but Ernst enforced colonial implementation according to his instructions, and told the colonial management with great righteousness that these were conclusions drawn by European experts.

Regardless of whether the colonial officials believed it or not, after doing as Ernst instructed, the disease control in the East African colony indeed remained at a low level.

Compared to other countries’ colonies, the results were significant, even better than some well-developed regions and countries, such as neighboring Mozambique and South Asia’s India.