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The Malaria Problem of the South. 



BY H. R. CARTER, ASSISTANT SURGEON-GENERAI,, U. S. PUBI.IC 

 HEAI^TH SERVICE. 



Your Secretary asked me to present to you the Malaria 

 Pwblem of the South. This matter is too big to discuss in 

 any one address. I will then simply say a few words on its 

 importance, on the general methods suited for solving it, and 

 tell you what has been done in its solution, or rather as much 

 of what has been done as the time allows. 



This problem O'f malaria control is not quite the same as 

 your problem of mosquito control, because mosquito control is 

 not the only method of malaria control. It is, however, probably 

 the most important method of malaria control. Our problems 

 then overlap, and this is the reason for presenting to this body 

 the malaria problem of the South. 



Our problem, too, is a more serious one than yours. A 

 failure of mosquito control in Jersey involves discomfort and 

 financial loss. A failure of malaria control, when malaria is 

 prevalent, involves sickness and death. 



As you know, the hot countries are pre-eminently the home 

 of protozoal infections, and in the diseases of the South of the 

 United States one such disease stands pre-eminent for the 

 injury it does. It is malaria. In that section none of the 

 bacterial diseases are in its class for the injury it does. No, I do 

 not except tuberculosis. 



THE IMPORTANCE 01^ MAI^ARIA. 



I mean its importance compared with the other diseases of 

 which the sanitarian takes count. And here let me say that 

 in this I am only considering isuch parts of the South (and 

 Southwest) in which malaria prevails so as to be a serious 

 sanitary problem. In many sections of the South it is no prob- 

 lem at all; in many others a very minor problem, but in those 



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