Rockefeller Foundation and International Health

Abstract

THE annual report for 1934 of the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation, recently issued, gives an account of the world-wide activities of the Foundation in the field of public health. The projects in operation for which grants are made are broadly speaking of three types: (1) the control of specific diseases, (2) aid to Governments to establish public health on a permanent basis, and (3) public health education. Under the first-named, investigations upon the control of yellow fever have resulted in the discovery in South America of a type of rural or jungle yellow fever, which differs from the usual form in that it is not conveyed by the yellow fever mosquito, which is completely absent in such districts. How this form of yellow fever is conveyed to man is at present unknown. Malaria, hookworm disease, yaws, diphtheria and tuberculosis are some of the other diseases that are the subject of investigation. Foundation aid has been granted to the Bureau of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases of the British Colonial Office, to the Irish Free State and to the United Provinces, India, for local health services, and to the Calcutta school of public health. The total expenditure for the year amounted to 2,433,535 dollars. The volume is illustrated with a number of interesting plates.