The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-03-21
Battle Against Ignorance
And Opposition


Lima, Peru, March 18.-The cam
paign conducted jointly BY the Pc
ruvian government and the Rocke
feller Foundation which has resulted
IN rldding the Pacific coast Of South
America from a scourge of yellow
fever was test of human endurance
and also a battle against ignoranc,
and opposition.
Our chief obstacle" said DR.. Hen.
ry Hanson, director of the Interna.
tional Health Board, was the ignor.
ance on the part of the public. The
inhabitants in general did not wish
TO accept the diagnosis of yellow few.
er, saying that it was pernicious ma
iaria with vomiting of blood. How
ever, there was sufficient number of
medical men there who had seen ycl-
low fever before and was satisfied as
to the nature of the disease.
In one town the populace rose in
arms against the enforced closing of
moving picture theaters and churches
and mobbed the sanitary office intend
ing to kill the director in that dis
trict and stop the campaign. The men
IN the Office escaped through hole in
the roof of the building and troops
were called out to end the riot.
The epidemic continued severe in
hat place for DR.. Hanson withdrew
all his sanitary forces to protect a
section of the country where they
were more needed.
An idea of the magnitude of the
';'mpaign may be gained from the fact
;hat DR.. llanson's assistants made
more than 100000 house visits and in
Spccted mere than 100000 water
containers.
After yellow fever was slammed
out in Guayaquil in 1919 the disease
Sicaithily spread to the northern
provinces of Peru and in early 1920,
DR.. Henry R. Carter was sent to COM
BAT it. He believed he had it stopped,
hut, instead, it had crept into the De-
partment of Lambayeque.
Upon learning of its reappearance
the Rockefeller Foundation asked the
Peruvian government if help was
needed and President Leguia accepted
their offer. DR.. Hanson, who made a
name for himself in sanitary work in
Panama, has directed the campaign as
ii join project for the Foundation and
for the Peruvian government, each
paying 80 per cent of the expenses.
The outside world will little realize
the tremendous piece of work quietly
carried on by this American doctor.
who himself fell sick with the disease
he was fighting.
In January, 1921, the epidemic was
officially recognized and the campaign
begun. The disease became so firmly
established that DR.. Hanson and his
corps of assistants could not check it
until it had spread to 81 of the prin-
cipal towns of the Departments of
Lambayeque and Libertad.
"The inhabitants were dying by the
hundreds" said DR.. Hanson, "the
death rate being between 20 and 60
per cent but it was physical impos-
sibility for us to attend to individual
cases because of lack of personnel.
Our job was to prevent the spread of
the epidemic.
eve organized our campaign on a
military basis" continued DR.. Hanson.
"The job was so big that there was no
other way to handle it. had about
300 employees, in addition to a detach-
ment from the Peruvian army. My
American assistants have been Major
L. Fl. Dunn and Messrs. NJ. M. Seely,
l. w. Pickett and John P. Corrigan.
Colonel Vergne of the French Army
Mission to Peru was a very valuable
adviser and helper in the campaign" ;"