Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-05-18
Will COMBAT
! : Il H0OKW0RM
L..
Robert M. McWade.

of the worldwide problem OF COMBAT
ting the hookworm disease may be
one of the results secured by the Fiji
teenth International Congress on Hy-
giene and Demography, which meets
in Washington, September 2o-28 1912,
under the auspices of the United
States government. Scientists have
run the hookworm to it's lair since
the Fourteenth Congress which was
held in Berlin in 1907, and the forth.
coming meeting will offer the first op.
portunity for hygienic experts from
all countries of the globe to get to-
gether, compare notes and adopt a
systematic and uniform campaign
against what is regarded as the
greatest scourge which affects more
than half the population of the world.
The latest statistics which have
been prepared by the Rockefeller
Sanitary Commission, contain figures
which are startling in their magni.
tude and illustrate the imperative
need for a union of all public health
forces in fighting the hookworm. In
brief, these statistics show that the
hookworm infection belts the earth
in zone about Sc degrees wide, ex-
tending from parallel 36 north to
parallel 80 south, and that practical
ly all countries lying between these
parallels are infected. OF the for.
eign countries from which the com.
mission received reports, fifty-four
are infected. In six of these coun-
tries-Wales, Germany, Netherlands,
Belgium, France and Spain-the in.
lection is wholly, or chiefly, confined
to mines. In at least forty-six coun-
tries the infection is general and wide
spread. These countries have an
area Of 14,464,158 square miles with
919,85S,243 inhabitants.
In addition the report of the LON
mission shows that eleven OF our own
states with a population in excess of
100000 are also in the infected belt
and that Of the total population of the
world-about 1,600,0O0,000 people, in
round numbers, about 940,C~ ~, live
in countries where hookworm disease
is prevalent.
In the Congress DR.. c. ". Stiles, of
the Public Health and Marine Hospi'
tai Service, and scientific secretary
Of the Rockefeller Commission, is ex.
pected to act as referee in one of the
principal sections devoted to the
hookworm discussion, and he, with
other members of the Commission, is
now engaged in the preparation OF
the hookworm exhibit forming feat
ure of the Exhibition on Health which
will be an adjunct of the Congress.
The Commission also will assist the
various states Of the United States in
which the Commission has worked,
in the preparation of a cooperative
exhibit, which will snow the extent
Of the disease and the results which
have been accomphsed by preventive
measures. The exhibit also will por-
tray conditions such as exist in Por'
to Rico, for example, where estimates
have been made that ninety out of
every one hundred Of the working
people are infected; in Columbia,
where ninety per cent of the popula:
ton living between the sea level and
5000 feet above, are victims of the
disease, and in India, where from
sixty to eighty per cent of the $780,
600, 900 Inhabitants are infected.
The economic effect of the disease
will also be illustrated by charts
showing that in many instances fifty
per cent of the efficiency of labor is
lost because hookworm anemics can.
not do the work Of physically sound
laborers-and that this loss in the
world each year runs into countless
millions fdollars.