Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1919-06-12
Gen. w. C. Gorgas to Promote
Improvement of General
Sanitation.
DIFFICULTIES TO OVERCOME
Rockefeller Foundation Is BACKING
the Work-Ecuadorian Govern
nnent-Is Much Interested in
Undertaking.


way to Guayaquil, Ecuador, on his
mission for the Rockefeller founda-
ton Of stimulating the elimination of
yellow fever from that port and of
promoting the Improvement Of gen
eral sanitation there.
The Ecuadorian government has be-
come very much interested in the
matter, in view of the hopes of COM
mercial and industrial activity after
the war. General Gorgas received the
correspondent of the New York World
very cordially, and from him and
Colonel Wrightson much interesting
information about the work was OBJ
tanned.
The worldwide campaign now being
carried on by the Rockefeller founda-
ton against such universal plaques
as yellow fever, hOokWorm, malaria,
bubonic plague and tuberculosis has
already begun to revolutionize condi-
tons in some Of the countries in
which the work is being carried on.
Vitality Is Increased.
For example, the reduction of the
incidence of the hookworm in Porto
Rico and Panama has resulted in an
increase of the vitality of the popula-
ton and stimulated industrial activity
to a degree that has been clearly re-
f1ected in increased business activity.
The foundation has employed the
most eminent experts in the world for
it's work. General Gorgas is perhaps
the most prominent of them all, hay
ing eradicated yellow fever from
Cuba, made sanitation for Panama a
model for the world, and carried the
medical and surgical work of the
United States army to a degree of eff
fciency never known in any army of
the world before, during the war.
The west coast Of South America
has been severely handicapped in it's
shipping and commercial business by
the existence of centers of yellow fe-
yer infection in a number Of places,
especially at Buenaventura, the Pa.
cific port of Colombia, and .Guayaquil
the commercial metropolis and port of
Ecuador A rigid quarantine has had
to be maintained at Panama against
all these ports of western South
America, resulting in much delay to
passengers who have to be held in
quarantine at Panama until known to
be free from Infection; while cargoes
have frequently had to be fumigated
against mosquitoes and rats, with
much loss of time and money and oc'
casional damage to the cargo.
Two Difficulties Overcome.
Two difficulties have been in the
way of graduating these diseases
from these ports. One has been the
financial expenses, which would be g
heavy charge upon the governments
of the countries involved, and the
relative failure of the people at large
to appreciate the necessity of inn
proved sanitation.
The Rockefeller foundation is help
ing to solve the first of these Difficult
ties, and is indirectly also promoting
the spread of information among the
people so as to reduce the Indifference
on the subject. The healthfulness OF
the Isthmus of Panama has been g
good advertisement for sanitation tC
South American travellers, and the
influence of the example has been
slowly penetrating through the masses
of the common people.
One of the main difficulties il
arousing public sentiment to demand
the thoroughgoing elimination Of en-
demic diseases has been the fact that
the population of the ports involved
have become more Or less immune
through the operation of the natural
method Of immunization produced by
the disease.
But the constant arrival at these
ports of nonimmune persons from the
interior or from other countries keeps
the infection alive as long as the mos
quitoes which convey the disease are
in these ports. There is nearly al.
ways a sufficient number of cases OF
yellow fever in existence to infect
these mosquitoes, and when new arri.
walls are bitten they are likely to de-
velop the fever, and so to keep the
epidemic going from one new arrival
to another. The only safe way to get
rid of the fever, therefore, is to get
rid of the mosquitoes.