MAP-CHANGING MEDICINE 



309 



Photograph from the Philippine Bureau of Science 



AN OUTPOST IN THE WORLD WAR AGAINST THE HOOKWORM : EAS PINAS, PHILIPPINE 



ISLANDS 



American altruism goes to the ends of the earth to offer freedom from infectious diseases 

 to those who will accept its help and guidance. 



through a tax-supported health service, 

 state and local, the certain outcome will 

 be the final and complete control of hook- 

 worm and other preventable diseases. 



How rapidly general sanitation has 

 moved forward in the Southern States 

 under the stimulation of the war against 

 the hookworm is shown by the fact that 

 there are now approximately 131 counties 

 in twelve States which have full-time 

 health departments. 



In Virginia the number of cases of 

 typhoid fever was cut from 14,398 in 1909 

 to 2,493 in 1920. The reduction of the 

 death rate from typhoid fever registered 

 for three years in North Carolina, applied 

 to the United States, would mean an an- 

 nual saving of 13,000 lives. 



A VAST TASK STILL AHEAD 



The widespread incidence of hookworm 

 disease is shown by the fact that three 

 out of five persons examined in China 

 have it, three out of four of those in 

 Siam, and five out of eight in various 

 parts of India. It is estimated that two- 



thirds of the 45,000,000 people of Bengal 

 have the disease, and that more than one- 

 half of the 300,000,000 inhabitants of 

 India are victims of it. 



Similar conditions prevail in Brazil, 

 Colombia, Central America, the West 

 Indies, and elsewhere, and if one were to 

 reckon up the total number of the people 

 of the earth who labor under the hook- 

 worm handicap it would probably be four 

 or five times as many as there are in- 

 habitants of the United States. 



UNHOOKING THE HOOKWORM 



In its campaign against the hookworm, 

 one agency prepared, and lends to the 

 various communities fighting disease, a 

 motion-picture film which, with a full ap- 

 preciation of human interest, it has named 

 "Unhooking the Hookworm.'' The hatch- 

 ing of the egg, the creature's penetration 

 of the human body, its progress through 

 the blood, lungs, and throat to the diges- 

 tive tract, its parasitic role, and its propa- 

 gation are set forth vividly by micro-pho- 

 tographic pictures and ingenious animated 



