On a Dermatitis in Malays caused by the Cercariae of Schistosoma spindale Montgomery, 1906

Abstract

A skin infection called by the local Malays “ sawah itch ” has been known in Negri Sembilan, Federated Malay States, for some years, where it has been recorded from widely distributed areas in this State and also from the rice-fields adjoining the Tampin-Malacca road. It is essentially associated with padi-cultivation and is especially prevalent during those periods when the soil is being ploughed or “ chankolled ” prior to planting with rice seedlings, which occupation necessitates workers spending hours each day with their legs submerged in the mud and water of the sawah. (Sawah = swamp or tract of ground covered with water.) I am indebted to Dr. J. W. Field of the Institute for Medical Research, F.M.S., for permission to quote the following extract from his unpublished report on “ sawah itch.”