Rockefeller Report

Hookworm. Last year the Rockefeller International Health Board aided health enterprises in 97 states and countries. Hookworm eradication is proven a simple problem of rural sanitation. (The worms abound in bewrayed soil, invade the body by way of bare feet.) The Board helped hookworm campaigns in Mexico, Central America, the Antilles, Colombia, Paraguay, Ceylon, Madras, Siam, Java, Fiji; surveyed the problem in Montserrat, Hayti, Java, Straits Settlement, Cook Island, the New Hebrides and Spain.

Malaria. Two million people die yearly from malaria. In the British Empire the yearly loss from malarial deaths and incapacities is about $300,000,000. A mosquito, Anopheles quadrimaculatus (southern U. S.) carries the disease fully 1 1/2 miles from its breeding place in stagnant waters. These breeding spots must be cleaned up, the Board taught 12 states here. It explained the same in Porto Rico, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Palestine, the Philippines, Hayti, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Ceylon.

Yellow fever, scourge of Panama, no longer is endemic in the Americas, though last April there was an outbreak in northern Brazil. The Board sent Dr. Henry Beeuwkes, its yellow fever director, to Nigeria, West Africa, to experiment along the Gold Coast.

Results. In 1916 only 13 U. S. counties had health units to direct intelligent control of epidemics, infant and child hygiene, school hygiene. Last year there were 299. The Rockefeller Board gives such units temporary help, loans them experts, trains their executives. Last year it aided similar rural health services in many European countries.