Evening star., 1935-08-04
BY HAL HAZELRIGG.

TINE fight for the Panama
Canal, which was fight
against disease, is commemo-
n rated this Summer by two
anniversaries in the Canal Zone.
Thirty years ago Gen. (then Maj0
william C. Gorgas, after years
preparation, began his real attack on
yellow Jack" and malaria in the
isthmus. Twenty years ago the An
con Hospital, which had passed to
the United States May 4, 1904, with
other property of the French Canal
Co., began to undergo the four-year
transformation into the beautiful
italian Renaissance buildings now
known as the Gorgas Hospital.
The years between encompass
what is perhaps the most spectacular
campaign in the history of medicine,
eclipsing even the yellow Jack" era
in Cuba. It was a campaign against
the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, bearer of
the deadly yellow fever, and the
Anopheles. bearer of malaria. These
frail insects turned back the gallant
De LesSeps and his French followers
in their effort to build a canal across
Panama Gen. Gorgas' victorious
battle against the AedeS and the
Anopheles proved to be one of the
most decisive in United States history.
Finds Only One Mosquito.
Today one goes to the tropics ready
for anything in the way of man-eat-
ing insects-spiders, scorpions, taran-
tulas and all the relatives, near and
distant, of the productive mosquito
family scientists have discovered 135
species of the mosquito in Panama
alone) Yet if the traveller is hopeful
OF studying the insect at large in the
Canal Zone he will be disappointed
This writer, in a recent visit cover
ing a good part of Ancon, Balboa and
Panama City, encountered one mos
quito.
Gen. Gorgas eliminated yellow fever
in Panama in short time, The last
local case recorded was at Colon. on
the Atlantic side. May IT. 1906.
Malaria is a different story. 1t was
checked and driven back from the
cities in a long campaign, but it still
exists in the jungles. Health authori-
ties in the zone never relax their vigi-
lance against the AnopheleS, which
breed by thousands in the miSasmic
swamps and on remote portions of
Gatun Lake. Yet the Anopheles
never gets "out of control"
U. S. in Full Control
The person who takes no unneces-
sary risks need never fear catching
malaria in Panama. The United
States Government has full jurisdic-
ton over the Canal Zone, comprising
the strip of land miles wide on each
side Of the canal, and 1t also has COM
plete sanitary control over the Pana-
man cities of Panama and Colon,
adjacent to the opposite ends of the
canal. This control is exercised by
the Zones Health Department, under
Col. Owen B. Brown, chief health off,
GER
The natural environment on the
isthmus virtually throughout the year
Is ideal for the yellow fever and ma
laria mosquitoes. The mean monthly
temperatures range from minimum of
79 degrees in November to maximum
Of 81 in April. The rainy season ex-
tends eight or nine months of the
year, with mean annual rainfall
side to 1870 inches on the Caribbean
ittoral.
The extreme humidity makes evapo-
ration slow during the rainy season.
swamps about the Caribbean terminus
and Colon are extensive and elsewhere
along the canal the soil, in large part,
does not absorb moisture readily. Mos
1uitoes flourish in such an environ
ment.
Many Species Harmless.
Yet scientists say that most of the
i35 species of the insect identified on
the Isthmus live and die without ever
attacking man. Only few of these
species transmit disease. Of the II
kinds of Anopheles found there, for
instance, only four (of the Nyssorhyn-
chus family are important carriers of
malaria.
A mosquito first must bite a ma
laria-ridden person, then live IL days
(during which time the parasite de-
velops) before its bite is infective.
Thus it is not necessary to eliminate
the last malaria bearing mosquito, or
the last human carrier of the disease.
In order effectively to prevent spread
of the disease. 1t is estimated that
out Of each 100 Anopheles only few
In the infective stage will have the