PEOPLE AND THEIR SNAIL-BORNE DISEASES
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Dr. Barlow gave a most interesting and
stimulating seminar in 1929 at our Biological
Station on his experience in China. He came
away from China feeling somewhat defeated, and stated that eventually it would
be up to the people themselves to learn to
avoid infection with this parasite. It became especially frustrating when patients
who had taken a course of treatment and
who had been reminded repeatedly to
avoid eating raw caltrop nuts would come
back to the clinic three months later with
new and heavy infestations.
The need for better integration of interests when organizations work in underdeveloped regions has long been evident. The
same kinds of problems were present in
Egypt, where there is great need for alleviating suffering brought about by the
very high incidence of schistosomiasis. Our
studies there under World Health auspices
indicated that in many villages every inhabitant harbored that disease. It is conservatively estimated that at least fourteen
million of the twenty-five million people in
Egypt are infected. Yet, many of the projects initiated and financed with funds from
our country were clearly without any semblance of integration. These problems,
whether they concern malaria, fasciolopsiasis, schistosomiasis, or other such diseases,
must be the concern of others besides the
local health authorities. While there is far
more emphasis in the world today on social problems and economic welfare, the
failure on the part of all of us to encourage
people in their villages to attack their problems on a wide front is obvious. Such a
need for integration also exists in local
communities in the United States and organizations, including the University, but nowhere does it assume the prominence and
importance that one finds in the underdeveloped regions of the world.
WO FRIENDS of mine recently visited
the area of the new High Dam at Aswan in Egypt. They reported that in the
regions of the coffer dams malaria had developed at an alarming rate. With modern
techniques for the control of malaria there
is no reason to neglect that aspect of the
work, but in spite of the knowledge available
for mosquito control, people will not follow instructions and the units responsible
for legislation and co6rdination of effort too
often fail to function.
In this same vein, a similar situation developed in Egypt when we were applying
a molluscicide to kill snails in a large canal.
The schedule on that particular canal
called for high water, which is what was
needed to insure that the snails higher up
on the banks would be exposed to the copper ions used to kill them. The job involved
a three-day program. The first day everything went off very well, but the next day,
when we came to apply the chemical (copper
sulphate), we found that the water, contrary to the regulation, was off and the
level had dropped to a point where the molluscicide could not be applied. The response
of the engineer in charge of that region to
our protest was the characteristic "Never
mind!" He was only trying to satisfy a request of an influential friend and in due
time the situation would be remedied! Incidents of this kind are legion. The new High
Dam at Aswan in itself is a good illustration
of an endeavor which fails to take into account a health hazard that will ensue after
this dam is completed and in operation.
If the foregoing has in some measure
stressed the importance of integration and
team work, the purpose of this article will
have been achieved. To obtain a measure
of coardination, when working in underdeveloped regions, is apt to be a slow and frustrating process, largely because of the variety of differences inherent where the
mores, cultures, and languages are often
foreign to us. When I stressed some of these
difficulties in a talk not long ago to students interested in the Peace Corps, one
young lady came up afterward to tell me of
her experience as a member of another
group the previous summer. She was one of
fifteen college students sent to Senegal to
teach the natives how to use cement in their
villages. After discovering what a native
village was really like, only half of them
would go to work there-the rest played
cards in their barracks. After one day in the
village, the whole group retired to their bar
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