Gorgas managed to turn one of the earth's most infested areas into one of the healthiest (and it remains so today). During the years of construction, 82 out of every 1,000 employees were hospitalized for malaria - less people than in many American cities - and out of 39,000 employees per annum, only an average of 663 people died each year from all causes of death. The cost of all sanitary measures involved in Gorgas' work was a penny a day for each inhabitant: a small price when one considers the breakthrough in conquering the diseases.
