ROCKEFELLER SANITARY COMMISSION (1909-1915)

-In 1909 Rockefeller combined his special interest in the South and his interest in public health with the creation of the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission for the Eradication of Hookworm Disease.

Its purpose was "to bring about a cooperative movement of the medical profession, public health officials, boards of trade, churches, schools, the press, and other agencies for the cure and prevention of hookworm disease," which was especially devastating in the South. From its headquarters in Washington, D.C., the Sanitary Commission launched a massive campaign of public education and medication in eleven Southern states.

- It paid the salaries of field personnel, who were appointed jointly by the states and the Commission, and sponsored public education campaigns and the treatment of infected persons. --

- As part of this program, more than 25,000 public meetings were attended by more than 2 million people who were given the facts about hookworm and its prevention. So successful was its work that a new agency was created as part of a new Rockefeller philanthropy to expand the work to other countries and to attack other diseases both in the South and abroad.t