The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-12-01
A PUBLIC MISSIONARY.
Eradication Of Yellow Fever and Ma
 lariaI Fever in Iquitos, Peru.


 How a doctor of the United States Public Health Service was able to ae- cornp1ish remarkable results in redue-s ing the death-rate of adisease ridden South American sCfty. is told in the last issue Of the weekly Public Health Reports.
 When the Government of Peru was authorized by it's Congress in 1912 to contract a loan for the sanitation of Tquitos, a town of 13,009 inhabitants lying 2.30O miles up the Amazon River and almost on the Equator the au-3 thortties~ of that government requested our State Departm at Washington to recommend man who could do the work. Dr. George M Converse, of the Public Health Service. vas the man recommended, and he was given leave of absence to undertake the task Upon arrival in Iquitos, in January 1913, Dr. Converse found population afflicted with a death rate which av- eraged 40.56 per 1000 inhabitants, for ten years proceeding, and which had risen in 1912 to 49..52- The death rate l in an average American city is from l 10 to 15- He also found yellow fever preVelant with an utter lack Of knowI- edge or aisbelief of the method Of it's transmission. Hookworm was almost uniyersa14 There were no paved streets mo sewerage system, no public water. I Plans for sewers, water supply and street paving had already been pre- pared by an American engineer, MT. Samuel g. BayIess, but just at this time a financial crisis arose.. due to the low market price of Peruvian rub Der, and these engineering improves ments had to be abandoned. So Dr. could be accomplished by purely sarf- tary methods, in spite Of the lack of lalI these things. l Yellow fever is spread by certain species of mosquitoes and every mos I quito passes through the early stages Iof it's developement in Standing water The problem was to destroy Che anos- I quito in its larvae state; and this was l done by methods employed in the ca nal zone and elsewh eresAlI water con- tafneTs were screened to prevent the Having of mosquito eggs These opera tions resulted in the entire disappear ance Of yellow fever within a shori time, and the people. who had been Iskeptica1 at first, became satisfied I Shat real efforts were being made fol their welfare when month after month passed and no cases of this illness iappeared among them.
 I The campaign against hopkWorn was one of educations assisted by thk
 medical treatment of nearly two thou sand cases It was explained to the IP6OR10 s5IIlS@1. IL T6Su4J6Qs rom WalK111E barefooted on polluted soil, and pick ing I'D through abrasions in the skiI the hoe1kworm parasite. A curious fea. ture of the disease is that it produces in persons the desire to eat ulausua things, and it was found to be common Epractice among the Indians to eat lit, tie cakes of baked clay, sand and ever pieces of clay p1astering picked from the walls of their humble houses. San. litary toilets were Installed and tht wearing of shoes or other foot cover. ings encouraged wherever possible.
 By these means and other genera sanitary measures, good results wers rapidly attained. During the first yea of the work the death rate fell from 49.52 per 1000 to 28.88. For the frs six months of 1914 it dropped furthel to 21. The people seemed to hay, awakened to the importance Of thes,
 matters, according to Dr. Converse
 who has just returned to this coun i try, and he is Of the opinion that tn. campaign will be permanent.