GORGAS MEMORIAL LABORATORY

               CABLE: GOMELA

P. 0. BOX 2016

BALBOA HEIGHTS, C. Z.

AIRMAIL

APARTADO 6 9 9 1
PANAMA, R. DE P.

TELEFONOS: 5-0844
        S-0846

18 May 1966

Dr. Fred L. Soper
c/o Gorgas Memorial Institute
2007 Eye Street, Northwest
Washington, D.C.   20006

Dear Fred:

  I hope you'll forgive me for bothering you with the
following matter.

  My assistant for the past ten years, Mr. Abdiel Adames,
is anxious to continue work in the States toward his Ph.D.
in Medical Entomology.  He has a B.S. degree from the University
of Panama and spent one year doing research in Medical Entomology
under Dr. August0 Corradetti of the Istituto Superiore di Sanita
in Rome, through a fellowship granted by the Italian Government.
Adames has been accepted for graduate work at U.C.L.A. and plans
to study there under John Belkin. Since he hasn't the financial
means to pay his way through college, he has applied for an O.A.S.
scholarship.  I have been informed that he has met all the
requirements asked of candidates and that his application will be
considered during the next week by the final Selection Committee,
in which the authoritative voice is that of Dr. Marcos Charnes
(Chief of the section on Scholarships of PAHO). Knowing your great
influence in PAHO circles, I have written this letter to ask you
to put in a good word for Adames with Dr. Charnes.

  I would like to assure you that I never ask for these types
of favors, but I have made an exception in this case not only
because after 15 years of searching high and low in Panama,1 have
found in Adames a likely candidate for superior research in the
field of medical entomology, but also, because I feel that we are
in dire need of good medical entomologists in the tropics to take
the place of us who will be soon getting too old to move around as
we should.  I might add that Adames has received a glowing recom-
mendation from Dr. Corradetti and has also been strongly recommended
by Drs. Young and Fairchild.

  I guess you have heard from Dr. Young about some of the
latest developments on jungle yellow fever in Panama. Since
September of last year we have accumulated enough serological
evidence to convince us that there has been recent yellow fever
activity in southern Darien, near the Colombian border.  We collected


- 2 -

Dr. Fred L. Soper
18 May 1966

over 150 monkey sera from several points in this area and have
found more than 30s of clear-cut positives (that is sera which
gave a strong positive reaction against a yellow fever antigen
and were negative against antigens of other group B viruses).
These positives include several juveniles less than 2 years old
and one infant.  At the same time a group of more than &O monkey
sera collected res%ltly between the Bayano river and the Panama
Canal were completely negative.  We have interpreted these findings
as showing recent yellow fever activity in southern Darien province
which has not managed to spread to central Panama.  This failure
may be due to a complete break in the transmission chain during
the severe and prolonged dry season experienced early in 1965, or
it may be that the virus is slowly and silently creeping north-
westwardly through the remote and unpopulated area of northern
Darien.  In order to investigate the latter possibility,we now
have a crew collecting monkey sera in the upper reaches of the
Chucunayue river basin in the vicinity of the Cuna indian villages
of Morti and Uala.  We'll keep you posted on further developments.

  Thanking you in advance for whatever you may be able to do

for Adames. I remain,

Sincerely yours,

Pedro Galindo
Entomologist-Ecologist

cc:  Dr. Young

FG/aeb