GORGAS MEMORIAL LABORATORY

TUESDAY, JULY 27, 1965

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTER-AMERICAN AFFAIRS,

Washington, D.C. The Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs met, pursuant to notice, at 2:17 p.m. in room 2200, Rayburn Building, Hon. Armistead I. Selden, Jr. (chairman of the subcommittee), presiding.

Mr. SELDEN. The meeting will come to order.

This afternoon we will have witnesses in connection with S. 511, a bill that increases the authorization of appropriations for the support of the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, located in the Republic of

Panama.

(The text of the bill follows:)

[S. 511, 89th Cong., 1st sess.]

AN ACT To increase the authorization of appropriations for the support of the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, effective for fiscal years ending after June 30, 1963, the first section of the Act entitled "An Act to authorize a permanent annual appropriation for the maintenance and operation of the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory", approved May 7, 1928, as amended (45 Stat. 491; 22 U.S.C. 278), is amended by striking out "$250,000" and inserting in lieu thereof "$500,000".

Passed the Senate June 25, 1965.
Attest:

FELTON M. JOHNSTON, Secretary.

Mr. SELDEN. Appearing today as our principal witness will be Maj. Gen. Paul H. Streit, President of the Gorgas Memorial Institute of Tropical and Preventive Medicine. With him will be the Honorable Maurice H. Thatcher, Vice President and General Counsel of the Institute; also Dr. James Colbert, Asssociate Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Dr. Fred L. Soper, Secretary of the Gorgas Memorial Institute; Dr. L. L. Williams, ex-Secretary of the Gorgas Memorial Institute; Mr. Kenneth H. Brown, executive officer of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and Mr. Martin J. Fuller, also of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

General Streit, you will be the first witness. If you will come up to the witness table please, and have a seat, we will be glad to hear from

you.

STATEMENT OF PAUL H. STREIT, M.D., MAJOR GENERAL, U.S. ARMY, RETIRED, PRESIDENT, GORGAS MEMORIAL INSTITUTE OF TROPICAL AND PREVENTIVE MEDICINE, INC.

General STREIT. Mr. Chairman, I am very pleased to appear today in support of bill S. 511 to increase the authorization of funds to Gorgas to $500,000. I believe the passage of this bill is of great importance for the future of tropical medicine.

The idea for the establishment of the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory belongs to a Panamanian, Dr. Belisario Porras, who was President of Panama. He thought of such a laboratory as a monument to the memory of an American physician; namely, Gen. William Crawford Gorgas, who proved beyond a doubt that the tropics could be made habitable for all the races of the earth.

The U.S. Government in 1928 authorized a permanent annual contribution of $50,000 to the Gorgas Memorial Institute for the maintenance and operation of the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory. The Republic of Panama provided the site and a building of 4,500 square feet in 1929, and the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory became an operating unit.

For the next 20 years, the budget, buildings, and staff remained the same. The first Director, Dr. Herbert C. Clark, was a scientist par excellence. He possessed an inquisitive mind, superior intelligence, and a love of science and medicine. He had great affection for the tropics and showed sound judgment.

Having only a very limited budget, and even smaller building, he sent his scientists into the tropical jungles and rain forests to study the ecology of organisms and vectors of disease, and before many years, there appeared in scientific journals of the world a remarkable series of papers which brought the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory world renown and advanced tropical medicine and research appreciably.

But during the past two decades biomedical research has become sophisticated, unbelievable complex, requiring a broad base of associated disciplines to aid in the solution of every problem. The budget, buildings, and staff of Gorgas did not increase in accord with the demands of biomedical research, nor in accord with its increased opportunities.

It is true that the Congress increased the authorization for the Laboratory to $150,000 in 1949 and $250,000 in 1959, but these sums were insufficient for the transfer to the modern era and the modern type of research.

The addition of a half-million-dollar research building completed in 1963 with funds from the Congress, and a new insectary, built with private funds, has improved the situation.

Your distinguished chairman journeyed to Panama on the occasion of the dedication of the research building and made a very wonderful address, for which we are very grateful.

The continuing need of the Laboratory is for sufficient funds to recruit scientists in other disciplines. In fiscal year 1965, and again in this fiscal year 1966, the Congress appropriated an additional $100,000 for the support of the Laboratory. In addition, the science foundation donated $100,000 in each of the last 2 years for operation costs of the Laboratory. This has permitted the Laboratory to undertake

the recruitment of a number of scientists in associated disciplines, which the Laboratory so greatly needed, and they are now undertaking new projects in experimental pathology, virology, serology, tissue culture, comparative vertebrate zoology, parasitology, and bacteriology. For the first time since the origin of the Laboratory, it has now a sufficiently broad base to pursue tropical research in the modern manner. What is required now is sufficient support to provide for key staff members and maintenance of facilities for the years immediately ahead, and bill S. 511, which would increase the authorization to $500,000, will do this. And if carried through to passage, I predict that Gorgas will be able to intensify and augment its work in many areas of importance.

I would be very glad to answer any questions, if you have any.
Mr. SELDEN. Thank you, General.

I note you say that last year the Congress appropriated $350,000. This amount was not authorized as I understand it.

General STREIT. The bill by Senator Hill I know does that.

Mr. SELDEN. I understand also that the Appropriations Committee has appropriated again this year another $350,000.

General STREIT. Yes, sir.

Mr. SELDEN. Do you feel there is a need to jump this amount from $250,000 to $500,000 as far as the authorization is concerned?

General STREIT. Well, it is not from $250,000 to $500,000, Mr. Selden. It is from $350,000 to $500,000, because for 2 years now we have had $350,000.

Mr. SELDEN. Yes, but only $250,000 of that amount was authorized. General STREIT. Yes, sir. And in addition we have used a hundred thousand dollars each year for operations from a private source. Mr. SELDEN. Will you continue to get the private funds? General STREIT. No, sir.

Mr. SELDEN. Has that amount been discontinued?

General STREIT. We have no assurance of getting it at all. Mr. SELDEN. But there is a possibility that you will get it? General STREIT. I hope we will, but I do not see any possibility for it at all, sir.

Mr. SELDEN. As far as the future is concerned?

General STREIT. Yes; as far as the science foundation is concerned. Mr. SELDEN. What foundation was that?

General STREIT. It was the Colonial Research Institute which is located in the Bahamas. Mr. Rand is the chairman of it, of Remington Rand.

Mr. SELDEN. Mr. Fascell?

Mr. FASCELL. The associated disciplines are the ones which you enumerated in

General STREIT. Some of these, yes, sir. The Laboratory, in its old location where we had only approximately 4,500 square feet of space, there was no room to place bacteriologists or virologists or serologists or parasitologists. Modern biomedical research requires all these associated disciplines to move forward on any project: bacteriology, parasitology, virology, serology, experimental pathology, tissue culture. If you don't have them, you are stymied.

Mr. FASCELL. What is the limit on this? Do you go to planetary and environmental science as associated disciplines?

General STREIT. No, sir; not at all. Not in tropical medicine, sir. Mr. FASCELL. I am surprised and a little disappointed to hear you say "No." I was hoping you would say "Yes."

General STREIT. Well, perhaps I am too modest.

Mr. FASCELL. It is just that as a layman, it is very easy for me to relate any discipline to all the rest of the existing world and then say you really have a broad base for scientific inquiry.

General STREIT. I imagine following this out to a conclusion, you might think of it that way. But in tropical medicine, parasitology, virology, tissue culture, serology, and experimental pathology are the five associated disciplines that are absolutely necessary in biomedical research. You cannot move forward without them.

Mr. FASCELL. What do you do down there? Do you identify and catalog, or discover, or

General STREIT. I didn't go into that.

Mr. FASCELL. Yes. I am just curious now.

General STREIT. Yes. I am very happy to answer that.

At the present time we have several large projects. One of these is a study of arbo-viruses. This has been underway for more than 5 years. We have several field stations in the western part of Panama, and one in the eastern part of Panama in the Darien region where for most of the year we have personnel on duty who gather birds, reptiles, insects, organisms of all kinds, take sera from these organisms, take them back to the Laboratory for study. Studies are continuing regarding the reservoirs, the vectors, the organisms that transmit these viruses, the ecology of these diseases, and their relationship to the environment.

We also have a very extended project on migratory birds, because there has been evidence-not conclusive-that these viruses, such as St. Louis encephalitis and Venezuelan equine encephalitis, are transmitted to the United States by these migratory birds. And two reports are being published by the Laboratory within the next few months. Mr. FASCELL. Is there any hope that they will be conclusive?

General STREIT. Conclusive? I don't know, sir. I don't know. I can't say.

We have a good deal of information, sir, that is new and that may lead to new concepts and new ideas.

Mr. FASCELL. Well, it is certainly a very vital subject.

General STREIT. It is vital to the United States.

Mr. SELDEN. Wasn't Atabrine developed at Gorgas Memorial Institute during World War II?

Mr. FASCELL. I am not sure if I am interested in that or not, having taken enough of it.

General STREIT. Well, before World War II, Dr. Clark, who was our first Director, as early as 1934 conducted extensive experiments with various chemicals as means of treating malaria and controlling it. And when World War II broke out, and we lost our source of quinine, had all the divisions in southeast Asia riddled with malaria, it was the work by Dr. Clark that permitted the U.S. Army to immediately prescribe Atabrine safely and in sufficient dosage to control the situation in southeast Asia.

Mr. FASCELL. It certainly was very important and vital, not only to health, but to the national security.