HEALTH IN THE CANAL ZONE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2137, 1 May 1914, Page 9

HEALTH IN THE CANAL ZONE.

SURGEON-GENERAL GORGAS'S WORK IN PANAMA. DEBT TO BRITISH SCIENCE.

Surgeon-General William Crawford Gorgas, sanitary officer of the Panama Canal Commission, who arrived in .England from South Africa recently, has transformed , tho region of the Panama Canal from one of the most deadly into one of the healthiest localities of America, is xiuiversally recognised as one of the greatest authorities on tho hygiene of the tropics. . In an interview, on his arrival, Sur-geon-General Gorgas explained to a representative of "The Times" that his visit to South Africa was undertaken at the invitation of the Johannesburg Chamber of Mines, who wished liim and his two companions, Major Noble and Dr. Darling, to examine the sanitary conditions under which their labourers lived. There were 200,000 negroes employed in the mines, and pneumonia was tho diseaso by which they were principally .troubled. In Panama they had had exactly the samo trouble with pneumonia 'among the negroes. For the first two or three years the death-rate |from pneumonia in Panama was just as heavy as that from the same disease in South Africa, and no doubt this was due to the same causos. On the other hand, tuberculosis was more prevalent' in South Africa than in Panama. Sur-geon-General Gorgas and his companions remained three months in Johannesburg, and made suggestions which they hoped, would pvovo advantageous, especially in regard to tho housing of tho natives.

The Fight Against Malaria. In answer to a request that he would say, something about Ill's work on the Isthmus of Panama, Surgeon-General Gorgas said that ho thougtit the fact of their having kept a large white force of 10,000 or .12,000 people for ten years in one of the most ■_ unhealthy localities known was an evidence that the white man would live in health anywhere else in the tropics where the samo methods were adopted. He looked forward to a time, though not indeed in the immediate future, when a largo white population would exiet in the tropics, the return for labour being so much ereater there than in tho temperate zone. Tho diseases which had given thoir predecessors in Panama, particularly tho ■ French, so much trouble were yellow fever, malaria, and' dysentery.. Yellow ,fever was by far tho most important of these. The United States Medical Board had discovered in Cuba in 1901 that yellow fever was transmitted by. a mosquito, and before that it had been discovered bv Sir Ronald Ross and other, workers in this field that malaria was transmitted in tho samo way. Ayith this knowledge the Department of. Sanitation of the Canal Commission were ablo to do work which got rid of mosquitos in all tho small towns along the Canal, and thus. to protect the workers from the diseases caused by these insects. Thero had beon no case of yellow fever originating on tho Isthmus sinco 1906. In 1906, when malaria was highest, they had 800 cases in hospital per 1000 workers. During 1913 this had been reduced ; to. 76 per 1000. The death-rate- -from, all causes was about 41 per 1000 in 1906, and it had been reduced last year, to 8 per 1000. r The death-rate among the total population was now 22 or 23 per 1000.' Hn looked forward to tho time wlien the effect of tho Panama Canal would bo shown by the great commercial development of that country.

Danger from Cuayaquil. In Guayaquil tho same problem existfid as had existed in Panama. Yellow fever was the great trouble, and probably tho easiest way to get rid of it would bo to introduce a piped water supply. As long as they employed cisterns for tho supply of drinking- • water the danger would remain. A piped water supply, however, was only one of tho ■ principal problems. Tho city would have to be sewered and paved. It bad now a small partial supply of water coming from the mountains' fiftv miles off. It could oither'bo-in-creased there or the water could be got from some of the small branches of. the Guayas River near by., For reasons, of economy, he was rather in favour of tho latter alternative. Guayaquil was one of the largest ports nearest to the Panama Canal, and it was a threat to the Canal, since it was badly infected with yellow.fever and plague. It was one of the fow parts left of the world in which there was yellow fover.