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.