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After surveying various regions of Ethiopia using clinical examinations, filter paper indirect hemagglutination (IHA) test, and hydatid skin test, a hyperendemic focus of hydatid disease (Echinococcus granulosus) was found in southwestern Ethiopia. Two tribes, the Dassanetch and Nyangatom, in the lower Omo River Valley were found to have a particularly high prevalence of the disease. Of 1,342 individuals from these two tribes 4.8% had palpable abdominal cysts and 15% had hepatomegaly. This contrasts with 0.2% and 5.6%, respectively, for all other groups combined. Among the Dassanetch and Nyangatom, 6.4% had filter paper indirect hemagglutination titers 1:128 or greater versus only 0.3% for the combined results of other tested Ethiopian groups. Of 366 Dassanetch and Nyangatom, 31.7% were positive by the hydatid skin test versus 5.9% for all other southwestern Ethiopian tribes tested. Marked sex differences in hydatid skin test positivity, not reflected in the clinical findings or the IHA results, limit the use of this test for hydatid disease and suggest that possibility that men be exposed more frequently than women to other antigens cross-reacting with the hydatid skin test antigen.

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Glossina spp. were collected in south-western Ethiopia and were found to have a continuous distribution from the Sobat River Basin to the southern Rift Valley lakes of Chamo and Abaya. Their limits to the north and east of this range was not determined. Along the Omo River, Glossina inhabit a continuous band from 20 km above Lake Rudolf to at least as far as Abelti, 167 km south-west of Addis Ababa. The species collected were G. pallidipes Aust, G. fuscipes Newst., G. morsitans submorsitans Newst. and G. longipennis Corti. The ratio and numbers of G. pallidipes and G. fuscipes suggest a relationship between the latter and the number of hippopotamus along the Omo River. Both G. pallidipes and G. longipennis were caught biting at night.

No abstract