OCR Text |
Show I CONQUERING DISEASE So greater service lias been perfornied for mankind by any oni institution than that oi the Rockefeller Foundation in its i-rund.--upainst yellow fever, idalaria and hookworm Working in the southenwstates, and extending its activities t foreign lands tlij inundation iwis demonstrated the great benefits to be , rived from organized, weU directed efforts to combat certain diseases. There was a time when yellow Fever invaded our southern states and New Orleans regularly suffered while even Atlantic coaal orts us Far north .is Boston had yellow fever outbreaks. Then the discover? was made thai yellow fever was conveyed bj a female mosquito, known as stegomyia, which almost invariably breeds in artificial, or 1 man-made containers, preferring rain barrels, cisterns, cans and ririi-' ririi-' ilar receptacles which contain clean water. Ii seldom flics more than H 200 yards and usually bites during the daylighl hours. With this information, the Rockefeller Foundation has been high- y instrumental in eliminating yellow fjfvejr from the l nited States Hud cleaning Up plague spots in many pans oj the world, How serious were. 'h' outbreaks of yillnw fever in the past m. in be judged from the fad thai in 1878 there were iHjOOO lat lis from disease in the Mississippi valley and In 1842 half the population o Guayaquil, Kcuador, was carried off Havana for 150 years was at uo time free of the affliction After L'uba was purified and the United States and Panama j-leaned Up, the experts of I he Rockefeller Foundation were sent where e.vet there w;ts a call for them In 1918 they proeeeded to Guayaquil, known as a Bced bed, when- yellow fever always was present At the btegd of the expedition was Dr. A .1 Kendall, accompanied bj Hide.yo Noguchi, famous bacteriologist Of the Rockefeller Foundation Tin-' American expedition was received with open arms On arriving, the Americans found s cases which increased to eases during tlv, following month Results were not immediate and the natives expressed ex-pressed disappointment. But as soon ris the tvbrk of sanitation had i Well progressed and sources Of water were protected from the mos- j piifo. the disease died down, and by June. 1919, Guayaquil was: cleaned and since then not ;i case of yellov lever has been reported. This would have been considered a miraele had the methods by. which the results had heen obtained been concealed from the publicJ While the investigators wen in Guayaquil, Noguchi isolated the germ of yellow fever, a thread-like spiral organism to which he gave the name, leptospira icteroides, or "slim spiral, the jaundice maker " serum has been made which has been administered with apparently ( favorable effect in reducing the mortality of the disease which has ranged between 4c and 85 per cent; it is expected thai b vaccini will 1 be produced for protecting uon-ihtmunes against infection. The Rockefellei Foundation is also lighting malaria It is stated that in India alone J.,300,000 die annually from its effects and 800,-000,000 800,-000,000 people live within the .one of its influence. It. too, is a mosquito disease, the germ being transmitted bj the anopheles, which i a country inseel delected by its hahil oi standing on its bead when at rest, and seeking where grass or other plant life exi-i- In four Arkansas towns malaria was reduced 67 per cent at a eost of 60 cents per capita The system employed was to serren the houses, sterili.e l quinine the blood of human malaria carriers, and prevent the mosquitoes breeding by the use ot oil and also the pla iiiL'j of top minnows to consume the eggs of the anopheles One of the thoughts brought home bj this fighl againsl disease carried on in other parts of the world is that the people oi Ogden do not fully realize bow blessed thej are Here there is no malaria no yellow fever, U0 hookworm and now no typhoid fcvei Nature is', kind beyond measure, and yel do we appreciate the conditions which! are so favorable to longevity, to happiness and contentment |