Why or why not?
“In 1902, Dr. Charles W. Stiles reported to the Sanitary Conference of the American Republics that he had discovered “the germ of laziness,” describing his studies of hookworm disease. In 1909, John D. Rockefeller agreed to provide $1 million for the formation of the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission for Eradication of Hookworm Disease. Under the direction of Wicliffe Rose, the commission undertook widespread testing, treatment, and education programs in eleven states across the South, including Arkansas.
In Arkansas, it was reported that twenty percent of the population overall—and twenty-five percent of school-age children—was infected with hookworms, based on the commission’s testing of more than 50,000 people in fifty-eight Arkansas counties. The numbers varied with the geography: 61.4 percent of those tested in Izard County were infected; Nevada, Union, and Columbia counties reported sixty-six percent infection rates; and seventy-five percent of those tested in Hot Spring and Grant counties were infected. At Louann Public School in Ouachita County, according to Bob Lancaster’s The Jungles of Arkansas, every single pupil was infected.
The commission’s intensive method of combating hookworm disease combined widespread testing and treatment with door-to-door education in hygiene and an emphasis on public health efforts such as the building of hygienic privies at schools and churches and the requirement that children wear shoes to school. The Rockefeller Commission created a carnival atmosphere at their meetings, combining the testing and treatment of people with public testimonials, singing, and refreshments.”
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2233
