The New York Cimes

 

DEADLY MOSQUITO
WIPED OUT IN BRAZIL

Rockefeller Foundation Head
| Reporte Victory In 10-Year
War on ‘African Insect

 

 

YELLOW FEVER PUT DOWN

 

Dr. Fosdick Also Tells How
Scientists Solved Mystery
of Disease in Jungles

 

(Buccess by the Rockefeller
Floundation in Its endeavors to halt
the aprend of the malaria-carrylng
gambiae mosquito and of yellow
fever in Brazil, and the prepara-
tion ‘of more than a million doses
of yellow fever vaccine for the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, the United
fitates Army and the United States
Publio Health Service, are described
by Dr. Raymond B, Fosdick, presi«
dent ‘of the foundation, who made
public yesterday a part of hia re-
Port reviewing the 1040 activities
of the Institution, established ‘for
the. well-being of mankind through-
out. the world.”
“This dreaded malaria-carrying
insect (the Anopheles ‘gambiae
mosquito) a native of Africa, was
firat discovered in 1980 by a mem-
ber of the staff of the foundation,”
Dr, Fosdick reporta, “Apparently
it had come in an airplane or on
one of tha fast French destroyers
which at that time wore serving
the French air line between Dakar
in West Africa and Natal in Brazil,
The alarming spread of this Afri-
can scourge in Northeastern Bra-
211, and the virulent character: of
the malaria which it produced, re-
sulted in a systematic campaign
carried on by the ‘personnel of the
foundation in collaboration with the
Brazillan Government,

Staff of 2,000 In Battle

“Dr. Fred L. Soper, representa-
tive of the foundation in Brazil,
has been in charge of the direction

 

 

Gan jungle areas where no Aedes

‘{imala captured in the jungle re-

 

and administration of the offensive, |
and a staff of Gver 2,000 doc-
tors, technicians, scotits, inspec-
tors, guards and laborers have been
enlisted in the battle,
Dr. Fosdick ‘also reports success
in the unraveling of a baffling yel-
low fever mystery through the iden-
tfication of two new mosquito car-
rlers and a tew mode of trans-
Mission. n

Tt had been helleved that the yel-
low fever virus was carried by the
spectes of mosquito known as Aedes
aegypti and that it was trans-
mitted: by the mosquito By biting
man, who in turn tranamitted it
to other mosquitos who bit him,
‘thua continuing the mosquito-man-
mosquito cycle. A few years ago,
however, it was digcoverad that yel-
low fever existed. {n South Amert-

aegypti mosquitos were present.
The evidence further indicated that
some host other than man served
as a factor in the tranamission.
After intenalve investigations fn
field laberatories and in expeditions
in' the jungle, Dr. Fosdick reports,
“new light has been thrown on thig
puzzling altuation in 1940.”

Two Other Species Virulent

_ alt was found that two other
apecies of mosquitos, known as
the sabethine and the haomagogus,
algo carry the yellow fever virus.
Tests on more than 2,000 wild an-

vealed that these mosquitos trans-
mit the disease through the wild
panimals.:‘‘Many species had virus
circulating in the blood stream while
the animals were running about—a
condition especially favorable to the
spread of the virus.) 0

The discovery that yellow fever
oan be: transmitted in the jungle by
carriers other than the Aedes
aegynt! mosquito, Dr. Fosdick says,
does not minimize the significant
part which the negypt! mosquito
plays tn the distribution of the dis-
ease among human beings.

“It {a not too much to assert," he
adds, ‘that, if in urban areas this
insect were brought under control
anit has been in Brazil, the world
could avoid the thraat which In
these days of fast transit might oo
esally develop into a cataclyam in
Hast Africa, in Indla and even in
the Orient, to‘say nothing of parta
of!the Americas, should the virus
of yellow fever break through the
barriers of quarantine, vaccination
and medical vigilance.”

At the request of the British Gov-
ernment the Rockefeller Founda-
tion has sent to the Anglo-Egyptian
Sudan 250,000 doses of the yellow
‘fever vaccine developed in the
laboratories of its “international
health division and is preparing to
gend an equal amount In the near
future, the review says. More than
& million doses are being supplied
to the United States Army for the
vaccination of military personnel,
as well as to-the United States Pub-

 

 

Ho Health Service.