page_title: Israel Jacob Kligler
section_title: Anti-malaria campaign
hierarchical_section_title: Israel Jacob Kligler / Anti-malaria campaign
caption_attribution_description: English: The League of Nations malaria commission in Palestine, 1925. Israel Kligler is the bald man in the second row, far left. This identifies the people in the front row l-r: N.H. Swellengrebel (However, I think he is the one second row on the right (see annotation)) Ludwik Anigstein Col. S.P. James Bernhard Nocht Donato Ottolenghi S. Darling (if he is here, it is likely Norman Lothian is also in this image. The two were killed in a car accident in Beirut in the same year this image was taken (1925) Samuel Taylor Darling) Second row: Israel Jacob Kligler
context_page_description: Israel Jacob Kligler was a microbiologist. A Zionist and humanist, he was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, educated in the United States and spent most of his career in Mandatory Palestine, but died before the creation of the State of Israel. He was one of the first four professors of the Hebrew University and the founder of Department of Hygiene and Bacteriology of the university, which he headed until his death in 1944. Kligler was one of the pioneers of modern medical research in Mandatory Palestine, studying as varied a field as Bacteriology, Parasitology, Virology, Nutrition, Epidemiology and Public Health. He developed the Kligler Iron Agar medium for the isolation and identification of intestinal bacteria, which is still in use today.
  Kligler's greatest achievement was the eradication of malaria in Mandatory Palestine, a task that was completed after his demise.
context_section_description: Kligler was a key contributor to the eradication of malaria in Israel. Malaria was a major factor in morbidity and death in the country, and had important repercussions for Jewish settlement.  Before aliyah, Kligler gathered information about the health issues in the country and acquired experience in the field by joining a delegation for the Study of Yellow Fever in South America. Kligler prepared a malaria eradication program that was sent to several organizations and public figures, including Justice Louis Brandeis, who visited the country in 1919 and was shocked by the morbidity from malaria.  After failing to convince Chaim Weizmann and the Zionist executives of the need to invest in the eradication of malaria Brandeis privately financed $10,000 for an experimental project through Hadassah, which Kligler directed. 
  In the Galilee and around Lake Kinnereth (Sea of Galilee), malaria had decimated the Jewish settlements, with the incidence rate running at more than 95 percent of the workers in 1919.  Kligler's report of 1921 showed that the incidence rate had been cut drastically, with many settlements reporting no cases at all.
  Brandeis was impressed by the program writing:
  "I have Kligler's Anti-Malaria Report for May–June 1921 and think the results most satisfactory. Fundamental work - ably, conscientiously and economically done - by one who seems to be thinking only of his job and its relation to the great work at hand."
  Hadassah and the Joint Distribution Committee continued to finance the anti-malaria work until 1926, with Kligler heading the project.  In 1922, Kligler founded and managed the Malaria Research Institute in Haifa, established by the Joint Distribution Committee Hadassah with Brandeis financial assistance and worked with the Department of Health under Mandatory Palestine. Studies at the Institute examined the feasibility of plans prepared by Kligler and evaluated methods appropriate for each region of the country. The unit collected data regarding the prevalence of the disease, types and breeding places of the mosquitoes and in parallel focused on education of the public in regard to controlling the disease.
  Kligler showed the ineffectiveness of previous methods used for the control of malaria in the country, namely, planting of Eucalyptus trees to dry the marshes, and the provision of Quinine prophylaxis for preventing infection. Kligler focused his studies on the larval stage of the mosquito life-cycle.  He studied the prevalence of various Anopheles species, their biology and nesting grounds, tested different methods of eradication and selected the appropriate measures taking into account their efficiency and cost.
  His work demonstrated that drainage of the swamps alone would have had little effect on the malaria, because the mosquitoes breed in little pools of water which even the most elaborate system of drainage would not have reached. It was subsequently pointed out that at least half of the malaria could be ascribed simply to human carelessness and neglect. This resulted in such an improvement to the quality of the land with respect to malaria and marshes that agriculture could be introduced safely.
  One of the new method he initiated was the introduction of Gambusia fish to water sources in the country in 1923. The use of larvivorous fish to diminish mosquito populations was already well known at that time, e.g., the importance lies in the protocols used to define which of the known species of Gambusia was best suited to the local conditions. The fish turned out to be an effective biological means against mosquito's larvae. The result was the almost total eradication of malaria in the upper Jordan Valley i.e. the Huleh area, north of the Sea of Galilee,  by using where appropriate combinations of anti-larval fish and drainage techniques. (Figure 3)
  The achievements of Kligler and his staff in combating malaria were brought to the attention of the  Health Organization, an agency of the League of Nations, the predecessor of the World Health Organization, which in May 1925 sent a delegation to 
caption: Figure 4: The League of Nations malaria commission in Palestine, 1925. Israel Kligler is the bald man in the second row, far left
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