Granuloma inguinale in Southern Rhodesia and its treatment with antibiotics.

RECENTLY the writer has had the good fortune to make a prolonged survey of venereal diseases in Southern Rhodesia. During this undertaking some 17 cases of granuloma inguinale were observed during six months 'in widely scattered parts of the country from Concession,north of Salisbury, to Belingwe, south east of Bulawayo. 10 were males and 6 were females. It was estimated that to find these, some 1,500 venereal diseases patients were examined in over 50 institutions and, as many had already been in-patients for long periods far in excess of those of patients with the more ordinary venereal conditions, that the incidence was probably of the order of 0'25 per cent or less of venereal diseases patients seen. In the Report (Willcox, 1949) reference was made to 16 cases: 1 additional case was seen after the Report had been written. Some of these patients it was found possible personally to treat. Others were prescribed for and the results of treatment obtained from the medical officers concerned by post; others again were merely seen en piaL~sant. Those cared for personally, and some of those seen only periodically, were given streptomyCin, aureomycin or chloromycetin. Although one is well aware of the deficiencies of this paper, both as regards pathological control and followup, it is felt, all the same, that the experience is worth recording.