The epidemiology of disappearing malaria in the Solomon Islands.

On the 1st January 1970 there commenced in the Solomon Islands a special project for the eradication of malaria. This full Malaria Eradication Programme followed on from a Pilot Project which started in 1962 and a Pre-Eradication Programme which started in 1965. These widely scattered islands have been notoriously malarious at least since the days of the early explorers and probably long before that. In more recent times infants and children have certainly died in their hundreds and most of the people have been weakened with persistent infections. In the late 1950 IS, following on from the suceessful eradication of yaws, the Government and the World Health Organisation turned their attention to the possibilities of eradicating malaria. These early efforts have already been descri bed by Dr. J. D. Macgregor in his M. D. thesis entitled "Malaria in the Island Territories of the South West Pacific". This present thesis expands that work, concentrating particularly on the years 1970-75 which were the first six years of the full Malaria Eradication Programme.