The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1925-09-09
WAR ON q
CONTGON


o more thrilling chapter than tha
e which tells of the bitter battles he ha
r waged for the conquest of contagiOr
| and of the ground he has won In hi
struggle with his relentless and In
Vulnerable, though invisible. foes. tn
organizisms of disease.
The World war served to demon
strate that the tyranny of the disease
producing germ can be conquered.
Straining every nerve for victory
the nations that faced the foe from
Bagdad to Bruges had to make sure
that epidemic disease should not at
tack the firing line from the rear.
Consequently, halfway and temporiz-
Ing methods were taboo and proven
tive medicine had free reign.
The results were amazing. AL
though never before In human his
tory was there such an intermingling
OF peoples, such crossing and re-
crossing OF seas, such an invitation
to contagion to spread to the ends Of
the earth, only one epidemic succeeded
In breaking the barriers erected by
the sanitarians. And as If to en-
phasize mans power to master the
major contagious, not one of those
with which the worlds public health
officials were familiar escaped from
the regions where 1t was endemic. |
while influenza, which was a stranger, !
broke away and swept over the face /
Of the earth.
1t was natural, therefore, that when
peace came again the lessons of pre-
vention and sanitation learned during
the World war should have driven
themselves home in the minds of those
who think in terms of world welfare
Taught that epidemic diseases, which
plainly constitute the major menace
% civilization in peace times, can be
mastered, the sanitarians threw them
selves into the fray with redoubled !,
,nergy.
Hookworm Is Conquered.
Casting about in the early days
or the best pathogenic foe to attack
q great after-the-war campaign for :
International health, many of these :,
gencies decided to concentrate on y
ookworm. For here was a human I
llment sapping the strength of hun >
reds of millions Of people throughout ~
he frostless belt of the earth y
principal cause, indeed, of their
and collective exhaustion.
No other disease Is as easily cured CO
ne demonstration both of its cause tie
ID elimination was amazingly simple: fe
dose say, of epson salts, a dose of ha
ymoi, another dose of salts, fol- ia
wed by the elimination of scores and sn
en- hundreds Of life-sapping worms. Al
Reaching as far north as the Iati- DIR
de of Nashville, Tenn, and Osaka. tic
pan. and as far south as that of be-
ldivia, Chile, and Wellington, New wo
aland, the hookworm zone of the
rth' embraces more than half its bet
at
t is within this zone that most Of to
worlds backward peoples live. run
there Is much ground for saying to
t perhaps the chief part of their he
kwardness is due to the cumulative pat
ct OF the disease-physical eco tina
ale, Intellectual, and moral-upon wht
race. his
oday those southern states COM cha
lities whose health organizations feve
up the anti-hookworm war have A
satisfaction Of knowing that hook fellt
m disease has been greatly re- stra
ed, both In severity and preva- quit
e; that the people have been en- and
lened as TO Its Importance, its prin
4, and the means OF it's final con- ishe
that permanent agencies COM drov
ed to its elimination have been Cruz
ed In the SOIL and that a sus- and
ng public sentiment has been In "
Ted In the interest of more gen. Bu
measures for the better protec- that
u puoiie health. ease,
n'oie insiuious than the hook quar-,
!, and not SO dramatically Grad was
2, Is the microscopic animal that were
. n'"iaria. In the language Of and {
'inenteu USER, cholera kills its Fir
amos; plague, in its bad years. its new
'eds or thousands; yellow fever. ton
worm disease, pneumonia and FL the 4
losls are all terribly destructive. taylor
only In the tropics, others In tartar
temperate regions as well: but crate
Ia is today. as it were. a disease drive
iich the word pandemic is an malad
le In this country and in Eu- Tho
,'-,es nave iessened enor- Ameri
y during the past century, but should
.oaten. everywhere present, tie fol
ioe Oh the white Jack,
c. a year
o''s MALARIA. fever +,
ndia alone 100000 people die wears ,
'n'iaria ana lOO,O00.000 past.
',"'i IT'S ATTACKS. All over For
'rid. wherever anopheline mos. of q
'ne ague' is men against
hich Stays its thousands. rem. needed
, isS vi us ten OF thousands tine.
hunting grounds for other path. AS q
invaders, and makes its MIL resaarc
SIS efficient and useful. fonr ~,
as Maj. Ronald Ross. the die ho ~,
ied British army surgeon. who Stegom
ally able to pin the crime Of of The
ng malaria on the anonbo1,n.