sicht des Herausgebers der Schriftenreihe, auf dem Die Herausgeber des Welt-Seuchen-Atlas der Heidel- Grenzgebiet zwischen Medizin und Geographie zu berger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Ernst Roden- weiteren Forschungen anzuregen, gerecht werden. waldt und Helmut J. Jusatz, haben die Schriftenreihe "Medizinische Landerkunde" als eine Fortsetzung und Die Bearbeitung des geographischen Teiles hat in Erganzung ihres Werkes vor nunmehr 10 Jahren kon- dankenswerter Weise Herr Professor Dr. W. Kuls, zipiert. Der Verfasser ist dem Wunsche des verstorbenen Direktor des Geographischen Instituts der Universitat Begrtinders dieser Schriftenreihe, Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Bonn, tibernommen. Ais guter Kenner Athiopiens hat Ernst Rodenwaldt, die Bearbeitung Athiopiens zu tiber- Prof. Kuls aus eigener Anschauung und Landeskenntnis nehmen, urn so bereitwilliger nachgekommen, als er die mit einer Medizinischen Landerkunde im Zusammen- selbst die nach 12jahrigem Aufenthalt in Athiopien ge- hang stehenden medizinischen Probleme kennenlernen sammelten Erfahrungen und gemachten Beobachtungen konnen. Diese so wertvollen Erfahrungen haben ihren unter Berticksichtigung des inzwischen erschienen Niederschlag in der Bearbeitung des geographischen Schrifttums auszuwerten gedachte. Teiles gefunden. Ein besonderer Dank gilt ihm ftir die Der bis zur V ollendung des Bandes eher unbeab- Ausarbeitung der Kartenbeilagen tiber Klima, Vegeta- sichtigt verstrichene lange Zeitraum hat sich letzten tion' Geologie, Wirtschaft, Mineralquellen.

rope it was mainly the states of the northern and centrat European areas which succeeded in achieving the extermi nation or at least the regression of brucellosis. (The origi nal plan to present the conditions in Asia and Oceania, in cluding Australia, in maps as weil, and thereby to achieve a comprehensive worldwide review of the known and as certainable distribution of brucellosis, was not, however, practicable. ) Information available from these parts of the world, especially from Asia, is so fragmentary that the great expense required for the compilation of the map did not seem justified. On the other hand it seemed desirable to collate and document these data which had been ac quired as a basis for future research. It is tobe hoped that, at a later date, when more comprehensive data become available, the Heidelberg Academy will be able to decide to support a cartographic presentation of the occurrence of brucellosis in these parts of the world as weil. Last, but not least, the intensive research carried out by bacteriologists had led to the discovery of new species of Brucella, such as B. ovis, B. canis and B. neotomae. Further types - such as Type 4 of B. suis which occurs in reindeer and caribou - were identified. Though these new species and types, which are undoubtedly to be classed with the brucellae, have achieved regional significance in places, the three dassie species B. melitensis, B. abortus and B."

In dem Jahrzehnt von 1952 bis 1961 ist in der Geo- ben einen statischen Charakter, sie lassen sich nicht zur Be- medizinischen Forschungsstelle der Heidelberger Aka- antwortung der Fragestellungen der Geomedizin verwen- demie der Wissenschaften in Heidelberg der Welt-Seuchen- den, die eine Erklarung der regionalen Unterschiede und Atlas bearbeitet worden. Zum ersten Male wurde der eine Prognose der weiteren Gefahrung zum Ziele haben. Versuch gemacht, mit Hilfe der medizinischen Karto- Krankheiten haben nicht nur eine Geschichte, sondern graphie Korrelationen zwischen dem Vorkommen von ihr Vorkommen und ihre Verbreitung auf der Erde Infektionskrankheiten, der Verbreitung ihrer Ubertrager ist auch raumlich differenziert. Eine Geographie der Krankheiten ist daher wissenschaftstheoretisch ebenso und Geofaktoren, die eine seuchenhafte Ausbreitung her- vorrufen oder fordern, in Weltkarten und Kontinentkar- gerechtfertigt wie eine Geschichte der Medizin als ein ten sichtbar zu machen. Dieses Kartenwerk sollte eine besonderes Teilgebiet der medizinischen Wissenschaft. Information uber den Stand der Seuchenverbreitung in Eine ganze Reihe von Krankheiten tragen sogar geo- graphische Herkunftsbezeichnungen, wie z. B. Indische der Welt bis zur Mitte unseres Jahrhunderts geben, dem Unterricht dienen und zur weiteren geomedizinischen Cholera, Asiatische Grippe, Mittelmeerfieber, Felsenge- Forschung anregen. Bei vielen Seuchen mussten aber erst birgsfieber u. a.

On the occasion of a research visit to Thailand in my capacity as a member of the governing board of the South Asia Institute of the University of Heidelberg, I saw for the first time the severe clinical picture of dengue with haemorrhagic symptoms among Thai children. This visit had been made possible by Profes sor Dr. med. Dr. rer. nat. Ouay Ketusinh of Bangkok, to whom I wish to express my sincere thanks in this place. In 1972 the German medical literature - the periodical Medizinische Klinik, vol. 87, pp. 152-56, to be precise - had drawn attention to this new phenomenon in the disease panorama of South East Asia, indicating a change in dengue fever from being a relatively benign tropical dis ease to a form having serious clinical and epidemiological ramifications. During the ten years following my first publication the new clinical picture, described as "dengue haemorrhagic fever," has become a standard component in the Thailand's system of notifiable diseases. So too, the World Health Orga nization publishes regular reports in its Weekly Records. On March 30/31, 1981, its Regional Office for South East Asia convened a special conference in New Delhi, thus emphasizing the significance of the diffusion of this new clini cal picture in the states of South East Asia."

For medical scientists, biologists and geographers interest- ed in geomedical problems the helminthiases can be a fas- cinating object of research. Their distribution is due to the in part very complicated parasite life cycles which fre- quently depend on the presence of intermediate hosts. The search for the causes of the distribution of helminthiases requires to take into account not only such geofactors as affect the parasite developmental stages outside man but go beyond this and include the entire web of factors which contribute to the conditions for the distribution of their in- termediate hosts. Last, but by no means least, it is, however, man who through his customs and habits, his settlements and dwellings, his population density and, above all, his interference in the environment, determines the distri- bution of helminthiases. The frequency, persistence and areal expansions are a consequence of the interplay and in- teraction of all the geofactors. The aim of every geomedi- cal analysis must be to prove the causes of their distri- bution through a chain of causation which has no gaps. A classic example of such a chain had already been set out in the 1920s when Ernst Rodenwaldt investigated the occur- rence of brugiasis in the Serajoe Delta on Java, and it is Rodenwaldt's analysis which has served as a model for this work. The idea of producing the monograph presented here arose from the Geomedical Monograph Series edited by Helmut 1. Jusatz.

municable Disease Control, Dr. Itotia, Director of the The geomedical monograph on Kenya continues the National Public Health Laboratories, Dr. J. M. D. Ro series of Regional Studies in Geographical Medicine berts, Head of the Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, founded by Ernst Rodenwaldt in 1965, which may be considered as supplementing the World Atlas of Epidem and to Mr. Ted Abukuse, Chief Statistician at the Minis ic Diseases of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. Since try of Health, Nairobi. The authors offer their particular thanks for support the appearance of the first volume in 1967 the series has and valuable suggestions to Dr. 1. C. Vogel, formerly been edited by Helmut]. Jusatz under the aegis of the Professor of Community Health in the Medical Faculty Mathematical and Natural Sciences Class of the Heidel berg Academy of Sciences. at the University of Nairobi and member of the Royal The authors wish to express their thanks to the edi Tropical Institute, Amsterdam. Thanks are due to the Survey of Kenya for their willingness to allow the au tor for his suggestion that they should undertake this thors to reproduce some maps in the National Atlas of kind of teamwork, and to acknowledge with gratitude Kenya. The authors extend their thanks to their col the manner in which Professor Jusatz ensured the most league, Professor S. H."