Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-05-02
Eradicattng Malaria

The United States Public Health Service is
authority for the estimate that 1.-The ravages
of typhoid fever, tuberculosis, hookworm and
pellagra, all together, are not as esrious as
those caused by malaria" Startling though
it may be to the general public, the truth of
this statement long has been recognized by
observant physicians; and more recently alert
business and civic leaders have come to per-
ceive it's Importance. The industrial plant
that suffers from labor shortage, and the crops
that are damaged for lack of hands during a
critical season, bear striking witness to the
economic cost of malaria and convince teach
able men how imperative it is that the sources
of the disease be eliminated. Add the i'm
pairment of efficiency, which is truly meal
culable, and it is evident that industrial or
agricultural interests in malarial section
can well afford to spend whatever sum is
needful to protect themselves against this
energy-killing and prof1t-sapping malady.
Incomparably greater and more important
are the human losses involved. Though the
death toll be left out of account, one can but
be appalled, upon looking into the records of
malarial ravages on men and women, and
particularly on children. Six or seven million
people in the United States suffer from this
disease every year. In regions where it is
widespread and deep-rooted, the lot of the
inhabitants is indescribably wretched, whilst
the physical and mental development OF the
children is virtually impossible.
We have the reinsurance Of science, how
ever, that malaria can certainly and rather
easily be eliminated. Being transmitted, or
communicated, by a species of mosquito
known as the Anopheles the disease can be
controlled and eradicated by destroying the
breeding beds of this insect Recounting a
number Of achievements Of the kind, recent
writer says:
Gin Panama we learned how to elimi-
nate it under the difficult conditions of a
w
just ended, malaria was practically
eliminated from all the environments and
eXtra-cantonment zones. Many Of these
training camps were in the midst OF the
malarial districts. In none of them was
there much malaria, and in most Of them
there was none at all. Mosquitoes were
a rare sight about the environments and
the Anapheles mosquito was almost I'M
known. This was demonstration in the
malarial regions Of the south that mala-
ria can be absolutely controlled there,
and it was demonstration witnessed and
appreciated by many thousands of civil
ians. The public health service states
that during the war malaria was sue
cessfully controlled in 43 different areas
in fifteen States, and that 1900 square
miles of territory were rid of the Anoph-
eles mosquito"
So deeply interested is the National Public
Health Service in eradicating this Wasteful
disease, that it offers its aid to any infected
community which wants to make an earnest
and winning fight. The authorities stand
ready, indeed, to send special sanitary en-
gineer wherever his services are required and
where application is duly made through the
State health officials.
Georgia, with her large area of swamp and
wet lands, has reason to be especially vigilant
in this matter; not that malaria is in any
wise excessive in this State, but in order that
extensive and fertile areas now nhabitable
may be settled and made productive. Drain
age is the broadcast means to that end, as well
as the surest safeguard against malaria.