Jane Wilson-Howarth

Scientific Publications

 
 

Articles, expedition reports and contributions to reference books

Being both a traveller and a physician has given me the privilege of hearing an astonishing range of inspiring and moving stories. I endeavour to share these where I think colleagues and others will be amused, inspired or informed. Above is a photo of a blind cave fish that we discovered during expeditions to Madagascar. Below is a fairly complete list of my scientific papers along with mention of recent contributions to books.

Text books and guides

Oxford Handbook of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine (published jointly through OUP and the Royal Geographical Society) includes my chapters on gynaecology and child health; published 2015, 2018 and a 3rd edition with updates is due in 2023

Manual of Childhood Infections - the Blue Book (Oxford University Press and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health); the fourth edition includes the chapter Travelling Abroad with Children (pp 350 - 356) co-written with Matthew Ellis and a fifth updated edition was due to be republished in 2022 (but I have no news on when it will appear)

Simple Treatment Guidelines for Primary Healthcare in Nepal. PHASENepal.org 2020; 431pp

Health Information for Overseas Travel: guidelines for illness prevention in travellers from the UK – the new version of the British ‘yellow book’ from the Department of Health / NaTHNaC and for health professionals, published 2010

Health chapters in Trekking in Peru, Madagascar: the Bradt Travel Guide and at least 25 other Bradt guides

Amazon Cadogan Guide

Tanzania & Zanzibar Cadogan Guide
 

Medical & Parasitology Papers

Most of my scientific papers and professional articles are listed here:

Peruvian cures. Journal of the British Global & Travel Health Association, Winter 2023 13 p 11

How UK-aid has helped neglected people in Nepal 2017-2021. Journal of the British Global & Travel Health Association, Winter 2021 1o p 10-11

False economy or poor advice? A rabies case history. Journal of the British Global & Travel Health Association, Spring 2022 11 pp 20-21

Healthcare in a remote idyll (in country report) Travelwise Journal of the British Global & Travel Health Association, Spring 2021 8 pp 8-10

Is Nepal receiving the 'best' COVID-19 vaccine? Setopati newspaper published in Kathmandu, Chaitra 4 2077 / March 17th  2021

Viral load and the risk of COVID-19. Travelwise Journal of the British Global & Travel Health Association, Autumn 2020 7 pp 12-13-42

Viral load and the risk of COVID-19. Setopati online newspaper published in Kathmandu, Baisakh 2077 / April 2020

An investigation of an outbreak of malaria in International Citizenship Service (ICS) Volunteers in Nigeria. Journal of the British Global & Travel Health Association, 2018 XXIX pp 1-3

From our own correspondent - return of the expat. Travelwise: newsletter of the British Global & Travel Health Association, 65 winter 2017; click From Our Own Correspondent for the text

Amoebiasis. Journal of the British Global & Travel Health Association, 2015 XXVI pp 36-7 

Advising those travelling with young children. Practice Nursing 2015, 26 (7) 331-6

Adolescence and prophylaxis - a case history. Journal of the British Global and Travel Health Assoc., 2015 XXV p51.

Case histories: Malaria Risk in Uganda & An Odd Sample. Journal of the British Global and Travel Health Association, 2015 XXV pp50-1. 

Amoebiasis: diarrhoea in the returning traveller. GP Factfile April 2014; UK/DIL/GFF/ 231/2014

Risks of travelling with 'bargain insurance'.  Journal of the British Global and Travel Health Assoc., 2013. XXII p46.

Early contraceptive implant removal. J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care, 2013 39 (3) 233

Treatment for Irritable Bowel Syndrome? Journal of the British Global and Travel Health Assoc., 2012. XIX p43.

An unwanted souvenir from Mysore. Journal of the British Global and Travel Health Association, 2011. XVIII p27.

A Case for Reflection. Journal of the British Global and Travel Health Association, 2011. XVI p41.

Challenging myths in malaria prophylaxis.
Independent Nurse 23 May 2011 pp 6-27.

Risking rabies; a case report (written with Paul Richards) Journal of the British Travel Health Assoc., 2010. XV p41.

Malaria prophylaxis - a side effect. Journal of the British Travel Health Association, 2010. XV p41-2.

Polypharmacy in Egypt. Journal of the British Travel Health Association, 2009. XIV p25.

Creepy crawlies: How to Avoid Centipedes and Millipedes. Journal British Travel Health Assoc., 2008. XII p29-30.

Travel in pregnancy.
Women’s Health Medicine, March 2005 2 (2) 6-7

Bite prevention key in malaria.
Independent Nurse 21 Mar 2005 pp 16-17

Present from the Outback and Malaria: two Case Histories. British Travel Health Assoc. Journal, 2005. VI p37.

Malaria prophylaxis.
Independent Nurse 1 Mar 2005

Safe adventures with children.
British Travel Health Association Journal 2004 V 17-19

Advice for new mothers.
Archives of Disease in Childhood 2004 89 (10) 983; a snippet that takes a swipe at doctors who don’t or can’t listen to vulnerable new mothers.
See www.adc.bmj.com/cgi/reprint for a downloadable PDF file

The pregnant traveller.
British Travel Health Association Journal 2002 III pp 3-6

Sick of Going Abroad.
The New Civil Engineer 24th Oct 2002

Advising pregnant women about travelling overseas.
Pulse 27th May 2002, pp 50-4

How to repel the little biters.
Chemist & Druggist April 28 2001 pp 13-14

Persistent lymphadenopathy after tick bites in Nepal.
British Travel Health Association Journal 2001 II pp 56-8

Advising travelling families.
Travel Medicine International 2000 18 (3) 82-6

Travel Medicine: past present & future, conference organiser and speaker, London 13-14th March 2000

Health promotion in travellers.
Update 18th May 2000 pp 721-5

From the other side: anxieties and misconceptions amongst expatriates in Nepal.
Paper written with Matthew Ellis and Rosie Denmark and presented at the first British Travel Health Association Scientific Conference 20th February 1999

Management of Emergencies in Family Planning Services in Nepal: a reference manual.
JHPIEGO Baltimore/HM Government of Nepal, 1999; 111pp

Illness in expatriate families in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Travel Medicine International 1997 15 150-155

Hazards of trekking in Nepal.
Travel Medicine International 1997 15 82-87

Preventing Disease: a manual of ways to improve health in Nepali villages.
NEWAH/WaterAid 1996 99pp; also adapted for use in Bangladesh in 1997 and South India in 1998.

Treating anaemia.
Child Health Dialogue 1996 3&4 p2; a political piece about the way inappropriately expensive pharmaceuticals are marketed in Pakistan

Toward more effective health education in AusAID projects: an example from Lombok, Indonesia. in Health and development in south east Asia pp.191-204, eds. Paul Cohen and John Purcal; Australian Development Studies Network (Canberra) 1995

Is head flattening in infancy a good thing?
Archives of Disease in Childhood 1994 70 72; a snippet about the effect of swaddling on infant skull shape in Pakistan; click here for a downloadablePDF

Sustainable use of soap.
Dialogue on Diarrhoea (quarterly international health education newsletter with a circulation of 300,000 in 10 languages) 54 September-November 1993; available by clicking here Diarrhoea Dialogue

Sustained improvements in hygiene behaviour amongst village women in Lombok, Indonesia. Written with Glenys Chandler. Transactions of the Royal Society Tropical Medicine & Hygiene 1993 87 615-616; a pleasing follow up study suggesting that our health education programme still had significant impact two years on and diarrhoea rates were still 79% less than before health interventions; the simplicity of the message was one reason for the success, the other was the ‘cascading’ of information from mother to mother; see the Dialogue on Diarrhoea write-up above. Click Lombok followup for a longer roundup of the study.

Hand-washing reduces diarrhoea episodes: a study in Lombok, Indonesia. Written with Glenys Chandler, Jamiluddin & Muslihatun. Transactions of the Royal Society Tropical Medicine & Hygiene 1991 85 819-821; showed how carefully researched and targeted health education can have a significant impact and improve the lives of the rural poor; this intervention reduced diarrhoea attack rates by 89% in the medium-term. Click Lombok study for a longer summary.An unusual cause of cyanosis.
Journal Paediatrics & Child Health 1991 27 (1) 65-66

Perforated duodenal ulcer: an unusual complication of gastroenteritis.
Archives of Disease in Childhood Sept 1990 65 990-991; describes one unexpected outcome of physical stress in a seven-year-old child Perf DU report

Heights and weights of Children in Ladakh, N. India.
Journal of Tropical Pediatrics 1990 36 271-272; reporting a study of parasite burdens in children living in remote mountain villages

Riboflavin deficiency in late pregnancy: a problem in South Asia too?
Transactions of the Royal Society Tropical Medicine & Hygiene 1988 82 656

Wells worms and water in western Madagascar.
Journal of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene 1988 91 255-264; a study of the interrelationship of bilharzia, nutritional status and water use in school children from an irrigated and a non-irrigated area of rural western Madagascar which involved treating the children for schistosomiasis and other worms

Malaria in cave-roosting Peruvian bats.
Cave Science 1988 15 (2) 85

A study of Bilharzia and intestinal worms in children from Morondava, western Madagascar.
Archives Institut Pasteur de Madagascar 1987 52 105-116

The Scorpion Story.
British Medical Journal 1987 295 1642-4; an account of being stung and how the non-medics of the expedition thought they were losing their doctor

Hair analysis and the assessment of marginal malnutrition in children from Little Tibet.
Transactions of the Royal Society Tropical Medicine & Hygiene 1986 80 168-9

Can Encephalitozoon cuniculi cross the placenta?
Research in Veterinary Science 1986 40 138

Diagnosis of encephalitozoonosis in man by serological tests.
British Medical Journal 1984 288 1164

The biology of Encephalitozoon cuniculi.
Medical Science 1979 57 84-101; a comprehensive literature review of this still little-understood obligate intracellular microsporidian parasite

Encephalitozoon cuniculi in wild European rabbits and a fox.
Research in Veterinary Science 1979 26 114

Dr Tony White mastermined an important study on how high altitude influences thought processes. He demonstatred how altitude compromises the ability to make rational choices and take decisions but how acetazolamide protects thought processes. He conducted this research during our Southampton University expedition to the Peruvian Andes.

White, A.J. Cognitive impairment of AMS and acetazolamide. Aviation, Space & Environmental Medicine. 1984 5 598-603.

Tony is sadly missed: he was killed by a car while cycling to work.
 

Natural History & Ecology Papers

Biology of Subterranean Fishes, edited by E Trajano, ME Bichuette & BG Kapoor, Routledge US 2010 is a book that contains my photos of cave fish discovered during the second Madagascar expedition described in Lemurs of the Lost World.

Conservation and ecology of a new blind fish Glossogobius ankaranensis from the Ankarana Caves, Madagascar.
Oryx 1996 30 (3) 218-221

Godfrey LR, Wilson JM, Simons EL, Stewart PD & Vuillaume-Randriamanantena M.
Ankarana: window on Madagascar's past. Lemur News 1996 2 pp16-17

Wilson JM, Godfrey LR, Simons EL, Stewart PD & Vuillaume-Randriamanantena M.
Past and Present Lemur Fauna at Ankarana, N. Madagascar. Primate Conservation 1995 16 47-52

Palacios-Vargas, JG & Wilson, J. Troglobius coprophagus, a new genus and species of cave collembolan from Madagascar with notes on its ecology. International Journal of Speleology 1990 19 67-73 (download paper)

Wilson JM, Stewart PD, Ramangason G-S, Denning AM & Hutchings MS. Ecology and conservation of the Crowned Lemur at Ankarana, N. Madagascar with notes on Sanford's Lemur, other sympatrics and subfossil lemurs. Folia primatologica 1989 52 1-26 (download-Crowned-Lemur-paper)

Fowler SV, P Chapman, D Checkley, S Hurd, M McHale, G-S Ramangason, J-E Randriamasy, P Stewart, R Walters & J M Wilson. A survey and management proposals for a tropical deciduous forest reserve at Ankarana in northern Madagascar. Biological Conservation 1989 47 297-313

Wilson JM, Stewart PD & Fowler SV. Ankarana – a rediscovered nature reserve in northern Madagascar.
Oryx 1988 22 (3) 163-171

The Crocodile Caves of Ankarana, Madagascar. Oryx 1988 21 (1) 43-47

Malaria in cave-roosting Peruvian bats. Cave Science 1988 15 (2) 85

Wilson, Jane (ed) The Crocodile Caves of Ankarana: expedition to northern Madagascar, 1986. Cave Science: Transactions of the British Cave Research Association 1987 14 (3) 107-119 (download paper)

Howarth CJ, Wilson JM, Adamson AP, Wilson ME & Boase MJ. Population ecology of Ring-tailed Lemur and White Sifaka in Madagascar.
Folia primatologica 1986 47 39-48

Ecology of the Crocodile Caves of Madagascar.
Cave Science: Transactions of the British Cave Research Association 1985 12 (4) 135-138

A review of world Troglopedetini (Collembola) including an identification table and descriptions of new species. Cave Science: Transactions of the British Cave Research Association 1982 9 (3) 210-226 describes cave-dwelling invertebrates that I discovered in Nepal and Madagascar and were new to science (download paper)

Cave ecology in the Himalaya.
Studies in Speleology 1977 3 (2) 66-9

Caves: changing ecosystems?
Studies in Speleology 1977 3 (1) 34-38 includes a discussion of the influences man can have on delicate and specialised cave-adapted animals (download paper)

Cavers and Cave Fauna. British Cave Research Association Bulletin 1976 no.11; pp 8-9

The effect of low humidity on the distribution of Heteromurus nitidus (Collembola) in Radford Cave, Devon.
Transactions of the British Cave Research Association 1975 2 (3) 123-126 I was so very proud of this, my first, publication. It was a pithy little piece of research on obscure, dung eating, cave dwelling invertebrates; I am still rather fond of springtails. (download )
 

Expeditions

Paper copies of my expedition reports are lodged with the six copyright libraries so they can be accessed at the British Museum library in London, libraries of the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Trinity College, Dublin and the national libraries of Scotland and Wales; further copies are at the Royal Geographical Society, Kensington, the University of Southampton and other relevant archives.

Himalaya Underground: the 1976 speleological expedition

This six-month overland expedition to limestone regions of Chitral (Pakistan), Dehra Dun (India) and the Pokhara and Kathmandu Valleys (Nepal) involved Gill Durrant, Christopher Smart (cave surveys), John Turner (leader) and Jane M Wilson (ecologist/report editor). We discovered a range of animals that were new to science.

Southampton University Madagascar Expedition 1981

André Adamson led a team of undergraduates: Mike Boase, Catherine J Howarth, Liz Sparke, Jane M Wilson and Mary E Wilson; we spent nearly three months studying lemur ecology (in the Berenty private reserve in the south and in the Ankarana Massif in the north), searching for caves to explore and beginning the first comprehensive zoological work in the Ankarana Special Reserve. Further new species were encountered and described.

Perú 82: Southampton University Exploration Society Perú Expedition

Front row: Steve Gontarek, Dermot Martin, Jane, Mary Styles nee Wilson, Nicky Halliday. 
Back row: Ian Stronge, Dave Kay, Alison Denham, Mandy Patton, Julian Payne, the late Tony White.

This was a two-month study in the high Andes and the tropical jungle with a big team: Alison Denham, Steve Gontarek, Nicky Halliday, Dave Kay, Dermot Martin, Mandy Patton, Julian Payne, Ian Stronge, the late Tony (AJ) White, Jane Wilson (leader) and Mary Wilson (medical officer). (Click here for the Expedition Report - File size 9MB, 104 pages) Read the press coverage of the Andean phase of the expedition in the Southern Evening Echo written by Southampton journalist Dermot Martin.
(Article1 | Article 2)

Left: Mandy Patton in the yawning entrance of Cueva de Huagapo, in the Peruvian Andes at 3572m above sea level. This is the longest cave system in South America.
Right: the chilly river inside.


The Crocodile Caves of Ankarana expedition July - December 1986

The core team from the UK comprised Phil Chapman (joint-leader), Dave Checkley, Dave Clarke, Sally Crook, Anne Denning, Ben Gaskell, Simon Howarth, Maggie Hutchings, Mick McHale, Sheila Hurd, Simon Fowler, Paul D Stewart (see www.paul-d-stewart.co.uk), Richard ("Roo") Walters and Jane Wilson (joint-leader). Malagasy collaborators were Jean Radofilao, Jean-Elie Randriamasy, Guy-Suzon Ramangason, R Ralaiarson-Raharizelina and Martine Vuillaume-Randriamanantena. Our researches covered not only speleology and cave ecology, but also assorted above-ground health and conservation work. These endeavours led to Ankarana's importance being properly recognised, new species described and its reserve status and protection upgraded. Click MadMatinreport.pdf for local newspaper coverage.

The blind fish that we discovered which proved to be previously unknown to science was described by Keith Banister in "Glossogobius ankaranesis, a new species of blind cave goby from Madagascar." Journal of Ichthyology & Aquatic Biology 1994 I (3) 25 - 28

Anne Denning, Phil Chapman, Jean-Elie Randriamsy, Roo Waters, Sheila Hurd, Mick McHale, Dave Checkley at Antsiranana with some Three Horses beer.

Travel articles

Hunting Celtic Spirals in the Dingle Peninsular, SW Ireland

A short piece was printed in the Traveller section of the Independent newspaper as Last Resort: Rocks of Ages (click here to read that version of the article), or for a longer version see my blog here Dallying in Dingle.

Baby swap - trekking with a small baby in Nepal

Mothers offered to swap their babies for mine....

This was printed in the Independent newspaper (click here to read the article)