The Outcome
The first two and a half years of the American canal effort were substantially dedicated to preparation, much of it making the area fit for large-scale human habitation. A very significant part of this was the sanitation program put in place by Gorgas. Nearly $20 million was spent on health and sanitation during the ten years of the construction period.
In the end, these efforts were a success: by 1906, yellow fever was virtually wiped out in the canal zone, and the number of deaths caused by the other top disease, malaria, was also reduced significantly. The hospitals maintained were by far the best to be found anywhere in the tropics; some 32,000 patients were treated per year.
While disease reduction dramatically improved the health of white workers, Black workers, the majority of the canal workforce, continued to die in large numbers - ten times the rate of white workers in 1906. While medical care was provided to all, housing was not provided to Black workers, many of whom had to live in tents and tenements outside the mosquito controlled zone. In the end, 350 white workers had died compared to 4,500 Black workers. While the loss was tragic, it was far less than during the French era.
Today, the canal zone is regarded as free of yellow fever and malaria, a great benefit to the many people who live and work there.
Read more about this topic: Health Measures During The Construction Of The Panama Canal
Famous quotes containing the word outcome:
“... the outcome of the Clarence Thomas hearings and his subsequent appointment to the Supreme Court shows how misguided, narrow notions of racial solidarity that suppress dissent and critique can lead black folks to support individuals who will not protect their rights.”
—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)
“It is always the moralists who do the most harm. Abortion is the logical outcome of civilization, only the jungle gives birth and moulders away as nature decrees. Man plans.”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)