22,000 workers died during French attempts to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama in 1880. Most of these workers died after contracting the yellow fever or malaria. The French were forced to abandon the project in 1889 after spending $287 million. In 1904, the United States gained control of the territory and began the process of building the canal. Many American workers fell ill with yellow fever, and the American-led project was facing many of the same problems that the French had faced. Dr. William Gorgas led the initiative to eradicate mosquitoes in the Panama Canal Zone, which led to the eradication of yellow fever and dramatically reduced the number of malaria deaths. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Before the germ theory of disease became widely accepted, the miasma theory was believed to be the cause of epidemics. “Night air” or poisonous vapors from the swamps were believed to be the cause of diseases such as yellow fever and malaria. Already in 1848, in an article published in the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, Dr. Josiah Nott stated his belief that insects could be the vector through which diseases such as malaria and yellow fever are transmitted. In 1881, Cuban doctor Carlos Finley identified a specific species of mosquito that spread yellow fever in Cuba. Without concrete evidence, these reports were mostly ignored by the medical community. In 1901, Havana was hit by a yellow fever epidemic while the city was under American occupation following the Spanish-American War of 1898. Dr. Walter Reed, head of the American medical corps in Cuba, began to believe that mosquitoes could be the vector of yellow fever. With the help of Army Colonel Dr. William Gorgas, they instituted a plan to eradicate mosquitoes in Havana. In just eight months, yellow fever cases dropped by 95%. The United States took over the Panama Canal project in 1904. A few months after the project began, yellow fever began to take its toll on the American workforce. Many of the native workers had gained childhood immunity from yellow fever and other tropical diseases, but white American workers were not immune, and nearly 75 percent of American workers returned home. American workers wrote letters home warning of yellow fever and imploring their friends and family to stay home, no matter how bleak their job prospects in the United States were. Hundreds of men died every year from yellow fever, which paralyzed construction. Dr. William Gorgas was assigned as medical officer to oversee the project. With the success of his mosquito eradication protocol in Havana, Gorgas was convinced that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes and established a systematic plan to eradicate mosquitoes in the Panama Canal Zone. Gorgas proposed a comprehensive plan to eradicate mosquitoes in the canal zone, which would require $1 million in funding. The Panama Canal Commission, responsible for approving any plans in the canal zone, approved only $50,000 for Gorgas to use for his mosquito eradication efforts. Most of the Panama Canal Commission, including Chief Engineer John Walker, thought the mosquito vector theory was nonsense, calling it the “utter nonsense.” When the Panama Canal Commission attempted to 1.000..