Gangarosa International Health Foundation

The control of intestinal infections has been a major aspect of the aggregation of human populations in large cities. By the mid-twentieth century, water and sanitation infrastructures in developed nations had controlled mortality from diarrheal diseases, but in the developing world many people still suffer and die from these diseases each year.

 

But now they are angels is Gene Gangarosa’s unique first-person narrative that updates and extends the story of the control of intestinal infections to developing countries — first through an understanding of the underlying mechanism of disease, then the development of a simple therapy that homemakers in remote villages could administer with readily-available materials, and finally through better ways to disinfect water in municipalities and at the household level. These simple, inexpensive measures have had tremendous impact in developing countries by reducing infant and child mortality, promoting physical and mental growth, improving productivity, and promoting family planning. Besides telling the stories of those innovations, Dr. Gangarosa also describes his experiences at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention establishing surveillance systems for the control of intestinal infections, his consultations with the World Health Organization in cholera outbreaks, and his efforts that set up two successful academic schools of public health.

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Dr. Gangarosa’s own family history inspired his career commitment to safe water and sanitation, as four of his thirteen siblings died in infancy before his parents came to America — ultimately because of contamination and scarcity of water. He was the junior member of the team that first investigated cholera with modern scientific tools. Through the rest of his long and illustrious career, he has been involved in virtually every aspect of the prevention, control, and treatment of intestinal infections. Now he tells the story of the giants who inspired him in his field — of which he himself is one.

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Eugene J. Gangarosa, MD, MS, FACP is Emeritus Professor in the Center for Global Safe Water, Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University. He began his career in public health immediately after completing his residency in internal medicine. He joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1964 as Chief of the Epidemic Intelligence Service. Soon after, he became the CDC's Chief of Enteric Diseases Branch of the Bacterial Diseases Division. In 1978, Dr. Gangarosa took an early retirement from the CDC to become Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Public Health at the American University of Beirut. In 1982, Dr. Gangarosa joined Emory as professor and director of the Master of Public Health program within the School of Medicine — which eventually evolved into the Rollins School of Public Health. As well as teaching and doing research, Dr. Gangarosa has published extensively on problems related to infectious diseases. He has received CDC’s highest award for distinguished scientific contributions, the Medal of Excellence; Emory University’s highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson award, for outstanding contribution to institutional development, Wade Hampton Frost Distinguished Lecture Award from the American Public Health Association, and Charles Hatcher Jr. M.D. Award for Excellence in Public Health.