ISTUMIAN CANAL ZONE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH,
OFFICE OF CHIEF SANITARY OFFICER, Ancon, Canal Zone, May 25, 1905.
SIR: I have the honor of inclosing herewith sanitary report for the month of April, 1905. The report shows, in considerable detail, the amount of work done and the results accomplished thereby. I would like to call to your attention, however, a few points in particular.
The health of the employees continues unusually good. The number of employees on April 30 was not quite as many as the preceding month. On April 30 we had 9,100 men on the rolls. Of this number 338 were taken sick, which would give us an admission rate of 445.71 per thousand. During the. month we had 178 constantly sick, which would give us a constantly sick rate of 19.74 per thousand for the year.
Among these 9,100 laborers we had 12 deaths, an annual rate of 15.82 per thousand. The French during their first year had a death rate of 66.80 per thousand, a very favorable showing for our side.
The total population for the Zone, including Panama and Colon, is 39,684; of this population 165 died during the month, giving an annual rate of 49.88 per thousand. A comparison of the death rate of the population at large and that of the canal employees will show that the mortality among the latter is only about onethird of that of the population at large, and this is principally due to the sanitary precautions which were taken with regard to the laborers.
A great deal of alarm has been caused by an outbreak of yellow fever occurring during the latter part of April. The administration building, in which some 300 nonimmune employees are at work, became infected. Nine cases of yellow fever occurred during the month-2 in Colon and 7 in Panama. Of these 9 cases
3 died.
From July 1, 1904, to April 30, 1905, we have had 66 cases of yellow fever, all told, on the Isthmus. During this same period (ten months) we have had 8 deaths from this disease among the employees of the Commission. While any deaths from this disease are to be regretted, still such a number among so considerable a population does not count much in the mortality rate.
Very respectfully,
W. C. GORGAS,
Chief Sanitary Officer.
To the GOVERNOR, Canal Zone(3)