A Study of health conditions and disease control in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, 1897-1956.

ABSTRACT 

This thesis generally is an investigation of the nature of health conditions and disease control in Northern Ghana during the colonial period, 1897-1956. In particular, the study examines the Protectorates disease environment and how the local people and subsequently the colonial authorities handled the disease problems. The study also investigates the extent to which measures designed to combat diseases were efficient. The conclusions reached in this study are that, the environment of Northern Ghana was fraught with many diseases, both of indigenous and “foreign” origin. The local people had developed their own ways of handling some of the diseases while others like onchocerciasis and leprosy were left to nature. When the colonial government supervened and modem medical systems emerged a multifaceted approach was used. Due to inadequate funds and consequently lack of medical personnel, attention was focused on Europeans. Although it was seen as prudent to cater for the local population from the 1920s onwards the little funds allocated to the Protectorate continued to hold back the local peoples benefit of western medicine. Tremendous development in western medical practice emerged only in the 1930s when the Native Authorities were involved in the health delivery system. Under the aegis of the Native Authorities, planned development of health and medical policies were facilitated, numbers and quality of health facilities improved and hospital attendance became encouraging. Combining strategies of isolation and vaccination, delivered through an efficient organisational network some diseases like smallpox and yaws became extinct by 1956; although others like malaria, trypanosomiasis and cerebro-spinal meningitis prevailed.