Children and youths called "legionnaires" helped carry out antimalaria campaigns in Venezuela in the 1930s. PAHO has promoted community participation in public health projects throughout its history.

The offices and staff of PAHO, still known as the Pan American Sanitary Bureau, in 1940. At back center, Director Dr. Hugh Cumming (left) and Secretary Arístides A. Moll. Moll also served as scientific editor of the Bulletin of the Bureau, which for many decades served as the most widely known and read source of information on public health in Latin America.

For Fred Soper at 80
...Scientific papers tell
 
That friend and foe shed ne'er a tear,
As Ankylostoma heard the knell
When Soper's entourage drew near.
On Aedes he cast a spell;
Anopheles soon quaked with fear.
"Eradicate!" we learned to yell
As Soper's couriers sped like deer,
O'er land and sea his creed to sell.
...Triumphant he in public health,
We rightly call him sage and seer.
For none can measure all the wealth,
The joy that he has made appear.
 
-Dr. Myron E. Wegman (PAHO secretary-general, 1957-60)

Dr. Hugh S. Cumming places a wreath on a memorial to Mexican physician and public health pioneer Dr. Eduardo Licéage (1839-1920). In his memoirs, Lineage wrote: "Relations between the health authorities of Mexico and the United States...grew to be very cordial and beneficial for maintaining our independence in health affairs, contrary to the tendency of that nation to impose itself on the Latin American republics."

Dr. Fred L. Soper (1893-1977), director of PAHO from 1947 to 1959, won wide renown for his unrelenting dedication to the eradication of yellow fever, smallpox, and malaria.