THE PREVALENCE OF INTESTINAL PARASITES IN RIZAL AND 

 CAV1TE PROVINCES AND IN CAGAYAN VALLEY. 1 



Bv R. S. Rissler - and Liborio Gomez. 3 



Shortly after the completion of the medical survey of the town of 

 Taytay, 4 the Bureau of Health organized a campaign for the purpose of 

 examining and treating the natives of certain provinces infected with 

 intestinal parasites, with the especial view of determining the prevalence 

 of hookworm infection and its relation to the public health. 



The first headquarters of this field party was located at Las Pinas, in the 

 Province of Rizal. The town has a sandy soil and is situated by the seaside. 

 When the work was completed there, the field party was sent to the Cagayan 

 Valley, having its headquarters at Tuguegarao, Cagayan Province, an inland town 

 about 100 kilometers from the mouth of the Cagayan River. Later it was located 

 at Santa Isabel, a hacienda of the Compania Tabacalera, in the municipality of 

 Ilagan, Isabela, about 60 kilometers further inland from the mouth of the river. 



It was found necessary to treat all patients affected with disease in 

 order to induce large numbers of the people to come to the dispensary. 

 Hence, ''many who were examined for intestinal parasites were found to be 

 suffering from other diseases. The results obtained are based upon the 

 examination of one single cover-glass preparation, but in a few doubtful 

 cases two or three such preparations were examined. Most of the stools 

 studied were passed on the day the examination was performed, but a 

 few were passed the day before. In the beginning of the work an attempt 

 was made to administer magnesium sulphate, but as a rule the patients, 

 after accepting their medicine, never came back, and later the plan of 

 previously administering purgatives was given up entirely. 



Babies under 1 year of age were not included in the examinations, as at the 

 beginning of the work it was noted that the stools of those examined were 

 negative, their food being chiefly mother's milk. 



'■Read at the biennial meeting of the Far Eastern Association of Tropical 

 Medicine, held at Manila, March 12, 1910. 



2 Medical Inspector, Bureau of Health, Manila, P. I. 



3 Assistant, Biological laboratory, Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I. 

 * This Journal, Sec. B (1909), 4, 207. 



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