Gorgas, << GAWR guhs, >> William Crawford (1854-1920), an American physician, became known as the world’s leading public health expert. He helped make possible construction of the Panama Canal by destroying mosquitoes that carried yellow fever and malaria.
In 1880, Gorgas was appointed first lieutenant in the medical department of the United States Army. In 1898, he became chief sanitary officer in Havana, Cuba, and worked to improve health conditions there. However, an epidemic of yellow fever broke out in 1900. In 1901, a commission headed by Walter Reed, an Army doctor, proved that certain mosquitoes transmitted the disease (see Reed, Walter ). Gorgas ordered the elimination of the mosquitoes’ breeding areas and quickly rid Havana of yellow fever. In 1904, Gorgas became chief sanitary officer of the Panama Canal Commission. He began to control yellow fever and malaria in the Canal Zone by eliminating mosquitoes there. He also helped reduce pneumonia deaths among the workers.
Gorgas went to South Africa in 1913 to study pneumonia among miners. In 1914, he became surgeon general of the U.S. Army. Gorgas was born on Oct. 3, 1854, in Toulminville, Alabama. He graduated from Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City. He died on July 3, 1920.
