New-York tribune., 1905-02-09
THE HEALTH OF PANAMA

Ihere IS probably no better authority upon
sanitary matters at Panama than DR. Gorgas
ne Is ne Health Officer of the canal zone and
it was he who dealt with yellow fever and ma
iaria at Havana with marked success. He is
trying to repeat at Panama his achievement in
Cuba. In his address before the recent Pam
American Medical Congress at Panama he gave
most lucid account of what is being done
there for the redemption of the isthmus from
the plaques and an interesting comparison Of
the situation there with that in Havana a few
years ago.
In Havana, said DR.. Gorgas-according to
the full report of his address in THE Medical
Record"-twO years of fumigation. cleansing.
ETC., had little effect upon yellow fever 1t was
not until attention was turned to the mosquitoes
that the pestilence was subdued. In less than
years campaign with mosquito netting and
kerosene the city was freed from yellow fever
and since September, 1901 not a single case of
that disease has originated there. That is a
noteworthy record. Now DR.. Gorgas has gone
to Panama to repeat it. He ought to do So He
feels confident that he can, and that he can do
so more quickly than at Havana since he ell
ters upon the work at Panama with the aid of
the experience and knowledge gained in Cuba
II dismiss it as settled" he said that we elm
mate yellow fever" And then he added sig
nifcantly IF we do not, some one will certainly
''be at fault, and should be held strictly ac-
''countable for it." With that all well Informed
men will heartily agree. Like methods should
produce like results, in Panama as in Havana
What is needed is that DR.. Gorgas and his staff
shall have ample power ana means at Pan
anna as at Havana.
Malaria, however, is a different problem. 1t
should be easier TO stamp out yellow fever at
Panama than at Havana, as DR.. Gorgas showed
but it will be much harder to eliminate malaria
from the whole canal zone. Malaria was de-
stroyed at Havana by the same means that
abolished yellow fever. the destruction of mos
quito breeding places. But at Panama there
are more than twenty villages and twelve thou
sand people scattered along line of nearly
fifty miles, and more than 20 per cent of those
people already have malaria. What does that
mean? That nearly every female mosquito that
bites a person along the canal line becomes thus
charged with malarial poison for the nfec-
ton of any else whom it may next bite
With two or three or q dozen yellow fever pa
tients there is little danger of such spread OF
infection, because they can all be kept in the
hospital under netting, where mosquitoes can
not bite them But the eghty-five hundred peo-
pie scattered from Panama to Colon cannot thus
be sequestered. They are living and moving
and having their being in the open where mos
quitoes can get at them without let or him
| drance.
! That is really the serious feature of the case
as DR.. GOrgas realizes. Nevertheless, 1t is not
| to be regarded as too formidable to be over
| come There two methods of attacking it.
! One is TO get rid of the mosquitoes That is
| being done chiefly by surface drainage, with
a degree Of success that is surprising to those
| who have had no experience in such things
| The other method is to get the people to taking
| quinine, and thus rid them of the disease. BY
| the combination of these two methods the num-
| Der of sources Of infection and the number Of
carriers of infection will both be reduced. with
we may be sure, the happiest results. II, as
| DR.. Gorgas we'll said. at Havana, by mosquito
work alone we practically eliminated malaria,
| and if at Ismailia on the Suez Canal, by mos
| quito work alone, malaria was entirely elm
| mated, by the use of the same method, rein
| forced with the quinine treatment we ought to
| be able to attain a large measure of success at
Do