Jungle Yellow Jack

The Indians of Panama used to say:

"When the monkeys die, the men will vomit black"--and die themselves, of yellow fever. Then came Gorgas and Goethals, and for 40 years the country seemed free of the scourge. Doctors believed that they had banished it entirely from the Americas; they scoffed at the Indian legend about the monkeys.

But all the time yellow jack was lurking in the jungles. The dread mosquito carriers spread yellow fever from animal to animal, and from animals to the few men who ventured deep into the forests. The doctors and engineers who cleaned up the cities and labor camps of Panama never suppressed the guerrillas in the jungle.

Last week the Pan American Sanitary Bureau had to admit that the experts still do not know how to stamp out jungle yellow fever, though they are learning more & more about it. It is the same disease that Gorgas fought: only the carrier mosquito is different. The only way to check it is by vaccination. Any farmer, woodcutter or orchid hunter going to town for a weekend with the virus in his blood may start an epidemic among people who have not been inoculated.

This year Brazil alone has had more than 4,000 cases of yellow fever, 500 deaths. Across the Andes in Ecuador, supposedly free of the disease since 1929, there have been 60 cases, 25 deaths. Even Panama's record has been spoiled: seven deaths in about two years.

To learn more about the jungle carrier, sanitary experts have set up dozens of forest stations in Panama. There, well vaccinated Indians display themselves on outdoor platforms, invite mosquitoes to bite them and be trapped for science. Well paid by Panama standards ($70 to $90 a month), the Indians consider it nice work.

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