The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1946-01-17

lNtefnutlOftut UfyuUt~uttUU hHA
cooperation, so much talked
about these days is nothing neao
In the Western Hemisphere. For
% pears the PdnAmericdn San
itaYy Bureau has been actiuelg
engaged IN promoting public
health. It Is actively supported
and endorsed By al nations Of
North and South America and
Is the first treaty to be ratified
bg all tie Amerieon Republics.
You'll enjoy reading about this
successful venture Ia interna-
tional cooperation long before
the Good Neighbor policy aCas
heard of.-EDIToR
With the American people showing
today a new concern for public
health in devastated Europe, it is
timely to take look around us and
see what has been done on our own
continent in the field of organized
sanitation. The Pan American Sani-
tary Bureau, an organization of long
standing, comes into the limelight.
Many years before the Good
Neighbor policy was heard of, the
Bureau was engaged in the great
task of preventing the spread of
disease in the Americas.
Thru such important and practic-
al activities as improving interna-
tional disease reporting, draining
swamps for the riddance of mosqui-
toes, killing disease ?carrying rats,
disinfecting drinking water, rushing
aid by airplane to an epidemic area,
or helping victims of flood or earth
quake, the Bureau has created friend
ship and respect that are deep and
lasting.
The Bureau itself was created
primarily to protect commercial
interests. At the turn of the
century infectious diseases and con-
sequent quarantines and closing of
ports interfered with trade and
business in such way that it was
thought advisable to establish an
organization which would try to
remedy such conditions.
At the Second Pan American Con-
ference, held in Mexico City in 1902,
the Pan American Sanitary Bureau
was created as an independent office,
housed in the building of the Pan
American Union and cooperating
closely with its divisions, but dis
tinct from it.
Financed by contributions from
each country in proportion to its
population, the Bureau has gone way
beyond its original aims and is to-
day the oldest international health
body in existence.
Not only does it seek to prevent
diseases and thus eliminate quaran-
tines, but it secures reports on
sanitary conditions, educates the
people to control scourges and
diseases and acts as a consulting
center in health matters.
1t strives, in one word, to develop
efficient urban and rural sanitary
services in the American republics.
With the aid of a competent head
quarters staff including doctors,
editors, writer's, librarians, research
workers and stenographers, service
of field experts among whom are
physicians, public health hygienists,
sanitary engineers, veterinarians,
nurses, entomologists and laboratory
workers, and with the cooperation
of national and local officials, the
Pan American Sanitary Bureau is
waging a great battle for health.
Thanks to its efforts and to the
campaign it started in 1880 in Peru
and Ecuador, plague, for instance,
has almost disappeared from those
two countries where it was the more
prevalent than anywhere else in
Latin America
In accordance with its policy of
aiding health departments to act
Independently in an efficient way, the
Bureau so well trained health Of
ficials in Peru that they were, in
turn, able to assist other countries
in plague research and control.