Good point about quinine. It was apparently very effective in Central America and Africa. It was not expensive, I think,
and could be put to good use today also, but according to some sources it was dis-continued by USA because it was not as profitable as other things that did not and do not work as well.... (unverified so far) ...
The point in Panama, was the same point in the Black Plague when the groups of people who already were practicing cleanliness as part of their lives being obedient to God were relatively 'safe' from the plague - and since so few of them got sick , they were blamed by others for causing the plague !
Likewise so many babies dying when delivered by doctors going from morgue to nursery without washing their hands...
they laughed/ mocked the doctor who warned them , for fifty years before they 'learned' to was their hands...
"While disease reduction dramatically improved the health of white workers, black workers—the majority of the canal workforce—continued to die in large numbers, at ten times the rate of white workers in 1906.[4] 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.[5] While the loss was tragic, it was far less than during the French era. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_me ... nama_Canal
"The Sanitation effort
The Canal Commission appointed Colonel William Crawford Gorgas in March 1904 as head of hospitals and sanitation. Under his leadership, many new departments of sanitation were founded, covering different aspects of the sanitation problem. Commissions were also formed to look after the basic welfare of laborers.
The sanitation work included clearing land and establishing quarantine facilities. The most ambitious part of the sanitation program, though, was undoubtedly the effort to eradicate the mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and Anopheles, the carriers of yellow fever and malaria, respectively, from the canal zone. There was initially considerable resistance to this program, as the "mosquito theory" was still considered controversial and unproven. However, with the support of chief engineer John Frank Stevens, who took over the post on July 26, 1905, Gorgas was finally able to put his ideas into action. "