Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: William C. Gorgas

  • Death, disease, and discrimination during the construction of the Panama Canal (1904–1914)

    Enrique Chaves-Carballo Overland Park, Kansas, United States   Theodore Roosevelt. Portrait, c. 1904. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. (1858–1919) President Theodore Roosevelt envisioned an interoceanic canal as indispensable for American “dominance at the seas.”1 An isthmian canal would facilitate rapid deployment of U.S. Navy ships from Atlantic to Pacific Oceans, bypassing the arduous…

  • Origin of yellow fever

    Enrique Chaves-Carballo Kansas City, Kansas, United States The origin of yellow fever has been a controversial subject since the disease appeared in the New World. William C. Gorgas, who was responsible for the sanitation of Cuba and Panama, believed that yellow fever originated in Panama.1 Henry R. Carter, from the U.S. Marine Hospital Service and director…