May 24, 1966
Dear Pedro:
In reply to your letter of May 18th, I can say that my unalterable, unchangeable, firm, and steadfast rule is never to intervene in personnel appointments in organizations I have left!  However, notwithstanding this fixity of purpose, I did call Dr. Marcos Charnes of the Pan American Health Organization regarding the case of Mr. Abdiel Adames.
Dr. Charnes admitted that he is on a Selection Committee for OAS but insisted he had not received the papers of Abdiel Adames.  After some discussion, Dr. Charnes agreed to check with the OAS to ascertain if Adames was a candidate.  After a long delay, Dr. Charnes called back to report that the OAS had sent the Adames papers to another committee by mistake, a committee that does not have jurisdiction in this matter.  The situation is being corrected before the committee meets, so that your intervention and mine at least places his case under consideration.
I am glad to have the information regarding the apparent movement of yellow fever virus up the peninsula.  I had known part of the story from Dr. Young, but his interest in details on yellow fever is not as great as yours and mine.
You now have observations on two waves of yellow fever virus moving up from Colombia: one in 1948, the other, which did not go past the Canal area, in 1956.  Apparently you are getting ready to observe the third wave, this year or next.
We now have observations in the Paraguay-Parana River Valley of southward extension of yellow fever from the Amazon Valley in waves beginning in 1934, 1944, 1950, 1956, and 1963.  Yellow fever this year is at its extreme southern range in Parana, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grands do Sul in Brazil, and in Corrientes and Misiones in northeastern Argentina.
It takes a little time, but if we can wait a while and complete getting the data, a disease can be counted upon to chart its own epidemiological picture.
With kind personal regards,
Sincerely yours,
Fred L. Soper