THE PHILIPPINE 



Journal of Science 



B. Tropical Medicine 



Vol. VIII FEBRUARY, 1913 No. 1 



QUANTITATIVE DETERMINATION OF THE BALANTIDICIDAL 



ACTIVITY OF CERTAIN DRUGS AND CHEMICALS AS 



A BASIS FOR TREATMENT OF INFECTIONS 



WITH BALANTIDIUM COLI 



By Ernest Linwood Walker 

 (From the Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I.) 



Infections with Balantidium coli are much more prevalent 

 in the Philippine Islands than has been generally recognized. 

 The first case reported was that by Strong (1901). In Bilibid 

 Prison 10 cases were found in the routine examination of stools 

 during 1911, and 11 cases in 1912. At the Philippine General 

 Hospital 8 cases have been observed during 1911 and 1912. 



Balantidiasis is characterized by the frequency of latent in- 

 fections, infections in which the patient may show no clinical 

 symptoms, or only occasional attacks of diarrhoea, over long 

 periods of time. Of the 29 cases observed in Bilibid Prison 

 and at the Philippine General Hospital during 1911 and 1912 

 only 5 have exhibited diarrhoeal or dysenteric symptoms. Bow- 

 man (1909 and 1911) published a description of 3 fatal cases 

 in Manila which came to necropsy. A further characteristic 

 of these infections is that the parasites only appear in the stools 

 of the patient at irregular intervals. On account of these pecu- 

 liarities of this disease and the parasite, infections are probably 

 frequently overlooked in the routine examination of stools. 



The medical importance of Balantidium coli, notwithstanding 

 these conditions, consists in the facts that persons parasitized 



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