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MOSQUITO WORK AND FUMIGATION IN CITY OF PANAMA.
Anopheles brigade.-Drainage work has been started near the Panama Railroad station and vicinity, as this region produces many anopheles, even in the dry season. A force of 10 laborers and 1 subforeman has been employed, and satisfactory results are being obtained. During the coming month a larger brigade will be employed, and as the rainy season advances the amount of work to be done will increase.
Stegomyia brigade.-The daily house-to-house inspection has been continued, and a total of 1,738 houses were visited by the sanitary inspector and foreman.
Two hundred houses were found to contain deposits of water in which mosquito larve were present. That is an average of 8.6 per cent.
Attention is called to the fact that the poorer houses generally have more deposits of water and hence more mosquito-breeding places. Some of the blocks in the city were found to be entirely free from mosquito-breeding places.
The house yards and balconies are all being carefully inspected .about every nine days for containers. The hotise tenants are being made to strain all water in small containers when larve are present. This is being done in the presence of the sanitary Sinspector.
It should be remembered that when I first took charge of the work, from Januarv 15 to 30, Stegomyia were found to be breeding in small 'containers and barrels in nearly all of the 'patios' in the city of Panama."
We have also had a force of carpenters at work making mosquito-proof covers for the tanks and wells inthat part of the city to the eastward of the Santa Ana Plaza, where the larger portion of the nonimmune people live and where most of the cases of yellow fever have occurred.
During the month 61 tanks and 120 wells have been made mosquito proof.
Also a large number of houses and wells, tanks, and other deposits have been oiled several times during the month.
Fumigation brigade-.The fumigation has been continued and every house in the city has been fumigated at least once. An average of 197 laborers were employed.
Also the fumigation has been extended out into the suburbs. After each house is fumigated, the floors of the rooms are at once liberally sprinkled and thna ne swept out.. After such treatment mosquitoes are hardly recognizable. The hoilses are all cleaned and all traces of the fumigation, paper, pasting, etc., removed.