The medical problems and medical care of the workers on the Firestone Rubber Company rubber plantations in Liberia are discussed over appropriate footage. The most common diseases in this region are schistosomiasis, the malarias, yaws, goitre, intestinal worms, the dysenteries, the filariases, traumatic injuries, and pulmonary, bone, and skin diseases. Smallpox is the most common of the infectious diseases. Spraying, ditching, and cutting back vegetation are done in an attempt to limit the habitat of the pathogens and vectors. Latrines are inspected. The people are immunized against smallpox. In heavily populated areas, water is impounded, filtered, and chlorinated. Trained medical orderlies work in the plantation clinics, giving first aid, caring for minor ailments, making mass survey of diseases such as sleeping sickness. Acutely ill patients are taken to the plantation hospital, to be cared for by an American doctor and trained hospital and laboratory staff. Shots include: African natives in village, stream, and field activities; Liberian landscapes and rubber plantations; outdoor clinic activities; the plantation hospital exterior, outpatient department with American doctor examining a patient, the surgical ward, a technician taking a blood sample, the hospital laboratory, the X-ray room, the operating room, patients convalescing outdoors, the plantation isolation hospital, three cases of smallpox, elephantoid scrotum, unilateral gynomastia, testing for trypanosomiasis, open drop anesthesia; Harvey S. Firestone, Sr. and Jr.
Copyright:
This item may be under copyright protection. Please ask copyright owner for permission before publishing.
Copyright Holder:
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company; Source: Item; Research date: 09/08/2011
Extent:
024 min.
Color:
Color
Sound:
Sound
Credits:
Production supervision, Charles Morrow Wilson ; direction, Joseph Kohn ; photography, Vernon Lewis ; editing, William M. Nelson ; technical advisor, K.H. Franz ; narrative and continuity, William M. Nelson and Charles Morrow Wilson.