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Zenon George Panos was born in the village of Stroumbi, Paphos. He was the son of the village school teacher George P Georgiades. He recalled that as a child he learnt to write at the village school by using a stick of charcoal on a slate. In his teens, he survived typhoid fever and in his 20s, pneumonia.
After qualifying from the University of Athens Medical School, he received postgraduate training in public health hygiene and environmental engineering, specialising in malaria control, at the Rockefeller Foundation in Athens. After his father's untimely death in 1937, he returned to Paphos, where he was appointed medical officer in the colonial administration. He later gave fascinating accounts of house calls to remote hamlets, which were accessible only by a long mule ride.
In 1938 the then chief medical officer, Errol Neff, assigned him a pilot project, (which was later extended by Rex E Cheverton, Neff's successor), for the control of malaria in the infested area of Limni, near Polis in the district of Paphos. This entailed identifying, draining, and systematic spraying of all stagnant water with petroleum products and Paris green (copper (II) acetate triarsenite), in order to destroy larvae of the Anopheles mosquito, and the use of the natural insecticide pyrethrin. The result was a sharp drop in malaria cases in the area. Work was interrupted by the outbreak of the second world war. Experience derived from the Limni pilot project proved invaluable in the planning and implementation of the Cyprus Anopheles Eradication Scheme which was to follow. In...