title: Disease in Africa: a medical perspective from the 1950s.
abstract: So much attention is focused on the current HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa that there is a tendency to overlook the grievous burden of disease from which the peoples of that Continent have suffered for centuries. This paper, based on letters sent in 1953/54 by a young doctor in Sierra Leone to his parents in Scotland, together with extracts from Makeni Hospital records of the same period, provides a factual account of front-line medicine in West Africa half a century ago.
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Macgregor
mesh_terms: D004605:Elephantiasis, Filarial / Q000266:history; D005260:Female; D006547:Hernia / Q000266:history; D059685:Herniorrhaphy; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007918:Leprosy / Q000266:history; D008288:Malaria / Q000266:history; D008297:Male; D007744:Obstetric Labor Complications / Q000266:history; D011247:Pregnancy; D012807:Sierra Leone; D012899:Smallpox / Q000266:history; D014330:Tropical Medicine / Q000266:history*; D015001:Yaws / Q000266:history