Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-07-01

get rid of man or get rid of the
mosquito" Thus the distinguished
bacteriologist, DR.. John Funke, summed up in
lecture lately delivered in Atlanta the
only means of eradicating malaria. Practical
folk generally will agree with him that the
better course is "to get rid of the mosquito"
particularly inasmuch as there are some
six or seven million people in the United
States who suffer from malaria. ~
Few other maladies costly to the
individual in point of reduced efficiency, and
few are so costly to Industrial and agri-
cultural interests in point of lost labor and
production. Though the percentage of deaths
amongst victims of malaria is relatively
small, the facilitating effects are often Sc
rious in the extreme. Children thus infected
are pitiably retarded in both physical and
mental growth. Backward in school, they
become more unteachable, more unprogres-
sive as they approach manhood and woman
hood, and frequently drag out slothful and
wretched lives. Industrial concerns are
alizing more and more keenly the wisdom
of spending large amounts OF money, II need
be, to free their working forces of the perils
of malaria. "In certain lumber regions"
says recent writer, where preventive meas
ures have been taken, the lumber output has
been considerably increased" whilst on
many farms the crops ARE cut fraction
of what they should be by the ravages of
malaria, large numbers Of laborers being
taken down with chills and fever at a time
when their services are most needed"
Abolish the breeding places of the anophe-
les mosquito, and malaria will cease to be
communicated and eventually will disappear.
This has been strikingly demonstrated in sew
eral regions of the West where counties once
VIGOROUSLY malarial have been made models
of drainage
and wet lands. Likewise the Panama canal
zone was purged of the disease under the
peculiarly difficult conditions of a tropical
country. Especially interesting evidence was
added to the record by the work of the United
States Public Health Service in the late war.
In the course of a report on the admirable
results, Mr.. J. A. LePrince, senior sanitary
engineer. of the Service, says:
Successful malaria control work was
carried out in forty-three separate areas
"a fifteen states Tin addition to the can
comment areas themselves). Anopheles
control has been accomplished in total
area of over 1900 square miles. Where
environments have been located in no
seriously malarial sections very little ma
lhria has been contracted by enlisted
men, and the malaria SICK rate among
enlisted men in camp has been very
ouch lower than it would have been
lad they stayed at home The command
ing medical officers at the environments
report mosquitoes being scarce at
nearly all camps, and Anopheles seldom
seen except at two of the aviation camps
near rice-feId areas. Wnen the army
and navy cantonment sick rate figures
are published it will undoubtedly be
shown that due to proper mosquito
control measures, practically very little,
and in many instances, no malaria has
been contracted at camps located in re-
gions noted for malaria.
AT some of the extra cantonment areas
this work has now been going on for
two seasons, and many prominent local
physicians have informed me that there
has been a remarkable reduction in the
malaria sick rate of the civil population
in and near their cantonment towns.
This demonstration work, distributed
over a wide area, has protected civil
population of about 1,750,000, and ssss
an average, constantly changing, mill
tary and naval population of 100000,
and should lead to a beJrer and more
extended general campaign.
In the light of so heartening record. no
State or county need wait a day longer to
launch confident campaign for the eradca-
ton of whatever malaria it now may harbor.
The Public Health Service, with headquarters
at Washington stands ready and eager to aid
any community which needs counsel in at
lacking this problem; it necessary a special
sanitary engineer will be sent. The State
Department of Health also is earnestly and
competently enlisted in the fight. Let the
public duly cooperate, and ere long the
source of this wasteful malady will be ex-
tirpated, with incalculable gains for health,
prosperity and progress.