The Rockefeller Sanitary Commission for the Eradication of Hookworm Disease (RSC) was a separate organization created to eradicate hookworm disease in the American South. The work of the RSC was the first major attempt at disease eradication, and it provided a model for future work of the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) and its associated organizations, like the International Health Division (IHD). Through health surveys, travelling dispensaries for treatment and lectures and demonstrations on disease prevention and sanitation, the RSC hoped to create a model that would convince southern states that public health issues were vitally important. To help accomplish this goal, the RSC tied its funding to partnerships with county health departments willing to contribute funding and assistance. Where county health departments did not exist, the RSC helped to create them. According to Frederick T. Gates, RSC member and Rockefeller’s most trusted advisor, “We do not go into a county, on principle, unless the county officers will pay something from the public funds on the work
References:
- The Rockefeller Commission for the Eradication of Hookworm Disease, By-Laws, Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC), RG III 2, Series O, Box 52, File 544.
- Excerpt from Trustees Bulletin, “Development of Rural Health Services,” December 1939, RAC, RG 3, Series 908, Box 14, File 149.
- Letter from F.T. Gates to John D. Rockefeller Sr., April 15, 1912, RAC, RG III 2, Series O, Box 52, File 545.