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For this establishment excluding the salary of Health Officer the total annual
cost at Panama rates would be 50,400 Dollars and at Bombay rates about
Rs. 50,000. About Rs. 15,000 would be required for "material."
Gorgas further states in his letter that—
" Such an organization, in my opinion, is all that is essential for
"yellow fever prophylaxis. While street cleaning, garbage collection,
"caring for nightsoil, etc., are very useful adjuvants to the general health
" and good appearance of a municipality, they have no direct bearing on
" yellow fever and the people of a poor community, that had little money to
"spend, would be entirely justified, I think in adopting the organization
" outlined, with the idea of keeping it up for a year or two, freeing their
"locality from yellow fever, and considering the other municipal work
" mentioned at some future time when they would be better able financially
"to carry it out."
and he adds—
" In the municipality the same measures that are directed against
"yellow fever will avail against malaria."
He has recently estimated the cost of the anti-mosquito work conducted
in the Panama Canal Zone at dollars 2 (just about 11s. 6) per head of the
population par annum. The Canal Zone is a strip of land about 47 miles
long extending across the Isthmus of Panama. The rainfall is heavy and the
population somewhat scattered.
It must be remarked that Gorgas is referring of course to a sanitary
campaign directed against every kind of mosquito.
354. Prom these few examples which give a fair idea of the cost of anti-
mosquito measures in towns and other places, it is possible to make a rough
estimate of the probable cost of efficient anti-mosquito work in a large City like
Bombay. A general campaign against; all kinds of mosquito33 if carried oat in
.Bombay with the thoroughness of the work done at Havana, Rio de Janeiro and
Port Said would probably entail an annual expenditure of Rs. 5,00,00) or more.
If work were confined to the southern portion of the Island it might be done
for Rs. 2,50,000 or 3,00,000 per annum or perhaps for a little less. On the
other hand, if instead of attempting to combat malaria by attacking all kinds of
mosquitoes collectively, in the hope of including those responsible for the
spread of the disease, measures were adopted against the carrier of malaria
alone, the expenditure required would be very much reduced.
Section 2.
355. THE COST OF MOSQUITO PREVENTION" IN BOMBAY.—It
is necessary to go into the question of the cost of of efficient anti-mosc[uito work in
Bombay in some detail, in order that a clear idea may be gained of the staff and
organization required for such work. If the Municipal Corporation decided to
carry out measures against every species of mosquito throughout the whole island
in a really thorough manner the work would necessitate the careful inspection of
all the premises on the island, occupied or unoccupied, at intervals of a week
or not less than ten days.
356. In the Census Report of 1901 a house was defined as "a building
under one undivided roof," but a building having two or more separate root's
connected inter se by subsidiary roofs was also classed as a single house. For
example, in a case where the roof of a line of servants' quarters was connected
with the roof of a stable by a subsidiary roof, covering a passage, the stables and
servants' quarters were considered to form one building, or one separate house.
Many of the single houses in Bombay are very large and contain many
tenements or quarters occupied by separate families. This fact renders a careful
inspection of a given number of houses in Bombay a much more difficult
matter than the inspection of the same number of " houses " in another country.
357. At the Census of 1906 there were 43,000 houses on the island and at
the present time it is probable that there are not less than 45,000 occupied or un-
occupied premises in Bombay, This latter number is used therefore as a basis
upon which to estimate the cost of a scheme of efficient anti-mosquito work for
Bombay, on the assumption that it was proposed to adopt thorough measures