A report on hemoglobinuric fever in the Canal Zone : a study of its etiology and treatment / by W.E. Deeks and W.M. James.

  • Deeks, W.E.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A report on hemoglobinuric fever in the Canal Zone : a study of its etiology and treatment / by W.E. Deeks and W.M. James. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    this vacation must be taken in the States or in a malaria-free country. If a bachelor is too ill to work he is sent to the Commission hospital at Ancon or Colon, and most married men, who, by reason of sickness, are unfit for duty, also avail themselves of the hospital service. A sanitarium for convalescent patients is maintained in the malaria- free island of Taboga, in the Gulf of Panama. The Americans do not frequent at night the native quarters in the Zone towns; do not expose themselves unnecessarily to malarial infection; and of their own initi- ative aid greatly in preserving their health and in keeping sanitary regulations. Classed with Americans, who are also called gold employees, are those white men of other nationalities who hold positions entitling them to similar quarters and treatment. Those of the European laborers who so desire live in well kept and carefully screened barracks, and for families, screened quarters are provided. But no amount of advice seems to be effective in securing among them individual prophylaxis against disease. Every sanitary regulation needs to be rigidly enforced. They often prefer to sleep in hammocks or even on the ground under their quarters or in other places. They mingle freely at night with the natives, and cannot be kept indoors. As a race they are not addicted to strong liquor, but we are informed by Mr. LePrince, the Chief Sanitary Inspector, that an increase in malaria among them is always accompanied by an excessive consumption of rum, and very inferior rum, in the belief that the drink is an efficient medicine. They are indifferent to personal hygiene, and equally indifferent to their state of health until illness compels them to seek aid. As elsewhere in the world, the enforcement of sanitation among the negroes is a gigantic task. A small percentage only of this race lives in the free quarters provided by the Commission. The rest either prefer cheap lodging houses, where they huddle together at night like so many sheep, or else they live in straw-thatched huts after the man- ner of the natives. The European laborer, though he mingles with the natives, does not live with them, but the negro lives and sleeps in their houses, exposing himself constantly to the endemic malarial infection there prevalent. As long as he has a roof over his head and a yam or two to eat he is content, and his ideal of personal hygiene is on a par with his conception of marital fidelity. The conditions under which the three races live should be noted carefully, for they have a direct bearing on the distribution of malaria and hemoglobinuric fever. It will be shown that malaria is less frequent among the negroes, despite their many opportunities to acquire it, than among either of the other two races. And it will be