Malaria and Guppies
Before the connection between yellow fever and mosquitoes was realized and believed by the people, the French began to build the Panama Canal. After a huge death rate - 30,000 builders in only a few years - the decision was made to discontinue building it. While this was happening, Gorgas realized that there was a connection between the diseases and the mosquitoes and said that something must be done. He noticed a huge problem with yellow fever and malaria in Havana, Cuba, and used this city as a test to see if his ideas would help (Spielman & D'Antonio, 2001, pgs. 119-120).
Gorgas used the military authority to his advantage while trying to clean up Havana. At first he tried to "vaccinate" men with an infected mosquito, but it turned out that it was so hard to catch infected mosquitoes that this plan was unreliable. Gorgas realized that once one man became infected, many caught the infection as well. In an effort to break the chain reaction, he decided that as soon as one man became sick he should be isolated in fully screened buildings. This plan proved extremely helpful and the idea is still used (pgs. 120-121).
Arguably the most effective part of Gorgas' plan was to destroy all standing water. He knew that mosquitoes breed in standing water and if there was no standing water it would cure the problem. He sent out soldiers to get rid of anything that might hold standing water: containers, tires and other litter found in the streets. In order to enforce this rule, anyone with a container holding standing water on their property was fined. Larger bodies of water, such as ponds, were oiled or filled with mosquito-eating fish (pgs. 122-124). These laws were an instant success. Within five months, yellow fever had disappeared and malaria had been reduced by 90 percent (Wills, 1996, p. 162).
After Havana became malaria-free, the government decided to begin building the Panama Canal again. They hired Gorgas to get rid of the mosquitoes. He used the same kind of rules in Panama as he did in Havana. Although this helped greatly, Gorgas was disliked. One admiral in charge of the project, John Walker, disliked Gorgas so much that he refused to fund the mosquito project. Gorgas was forced to plead for funds. Eventually, Gorgas got the amount of funds needed and the Panama Canal was finished without a significant amount of people dying of malaria or yellow fever (Spielman & D'Antonio, 2001, pgs. 124-125). Now, malaria and yellow fever are no longer a problem in most industrialized countries. They are, however, still a big problem in African and South American countries.
