Rockefeller Sanitary Commission

The Rockefeller Sanitary Commission for the Eradication of Hookworm Disease (RSC) was a campaign that operated from 1909 until 1915 to eradicate hookworm disease (ancyclostomiasis) in the American South. It operated in eleven states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. The campaign was launched with a US$1 million donation by John D. Rockefeller "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." Although some of the programs lasted until June 1915, the campaign ended formally in 1914 and the property and records of the Commission were transferred to the Rockefeller Foundation and the International Health Board expanded the RSC's work abroad. Offices were opened in Washington, D.C., in January 1910.

Hookworm disease was one of three major diseases that had plagued the American South since the early 1800s, along with malaria and yellow fever. In the early 1900s, many people in the South lacked proper sanitary infrastructure, such as sewage and even bathrooms. In addition, poverty and the warm climate led people to walk barefooted, often on feces-contaminated soil, where they might touch hookworm larvae. When the commission was launched in 1909, over 40% of the population in 11 Southern states was infected by hookworm without any knowledge of it. According to a study, by 1910, 7.5 million Southerners had hookworms. It is also estimated that the rate of infection in children was at around 30–40%, reaching an almost 100% in the sandy coastal plain.

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