TUBERCULOSIS IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 1 



By Isaac W. Brewer. : 



, Tuberculosis is probably the most important disease which is encoun- 

 tered in tropical countries. In the Philippine Islands it is one of the 

 most frequent causes of death. From the statistics gathered during the 

 medical survey of the to\»n of Taytay, Nichols 3 came to the conclusion 

 that 1 per cent of the inhabitants had the disease. The statistics for 

 30 provinces for the year 1907, representing a population of over 

 4,000,000 persons, showed a death rate of 210.9 per 100,000. This is 

 surely less than the actual rate, for only well-marked cases of phthisis are 

 recorded as tuberculosis by the town secretary, the layman who issues the 

 death certificates. 



The following shows the death rate in the Philippine Islands for the 

 year 1907, compared with the Tates in other countries. 



Death rate per 100,000, from pulmonary tuberculosis. 







Death rate. 



Ireland 





218.5 



Philippine Islands, excluding Manila, 



1907 



210.9 



Norway 





200.4 



Switzerland 





190.7 



Germany 





181.9 



United States, registration area 





172.3 



Scotland 





150.1 



Spain 





144.3 



The Netherlands 





13S.8 



Belgium 





127.7 



England and Wales 





125.7 



Italy 





117.0 



Excepting for the Philippine Islands, the above statistics are for the five 

 years from 1901 to 1905. 



In Manila, where the vital statistics are much more accurate, there were, 

 during the year 190S, 10,646 deaths from all causes. Gf these, 1,240, or 11.07 

 per cent, were due to tuberculosis, a death rate of 554.2 per 100,000. During 



1 Read at the first biennial meeting of the Far Eastern Association of Tropical 

 Medicine, held at Manila, March 12, 1910. 



2 Medical Reserve Corps, United States Army. 

 "This Journal, Sec. B (1909), 3, 279. 



331 



