Ashford, Bailey Kelly

Ashford, Bailey Kelly

(1873–1934) physician; born in Washington, D.C. An authority on tropical diseases, he discovered the parasitic hookworm that caused the anemia endemic to agricultural workers in Puerto Rico. He helped wipe out the disease there, thus launching a campaign to wipe it out throughout the world. He organized the Institute of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, which was administered by Columbia University after 1926. He did research on the American hookworm.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.