Hookworm as the cause of anaemia in Puerto Rico (Ashford)
Anquilostomiasis como causa de la anemia en Puerto Rico (Ashford)
- Date
- 1899 · confidence high
- Place
- Ponce, Puerto Rico
- Credited to
- Bailey K. Ashford, US Army physician
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
In 1899 Ashford identified that the deadly anaemia afflicting Puerto Rican peasants was not an unexplained 'tropical anaemia' but infection by hookworms, parasitic intestinal worms. Treatment with thymol sharply cut mortality and led to public-health campaigns.
The species involved (Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus) were clarified later; Ashford's historical sources speak of hookworm in general. The year is that of the diagnosis in Ponce.
What it led to
- the Puerto Rico Anemia Commission (1904) and mass treatment campaigns
- a model for hookworm campaigns (Rockefeller Sanitary Commission)
- the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Puerto Rico