SOME CONSIDERATIONS WITH REGARD TO THE CAUSE OF 

 THE FREQUENT REAPPEARANCE OF CHOLERA IN THE 

 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, WITH STATISTICS BE- 

 GINNING WITH THE OUTBREAK IN 1902 

 TO JANUARY 1, 1908. ' 



By Victor G. Heiser. 



(Director of Health and Chief Quarantine Officer foi the Philippine Islands, 



passed assistant surgeon, V. »S'. Public Health and Marine-Hospital 



Service, professor of hygiene, Philippine Medical School.) 



INTRODUCTION". 



The Bureau of Health has been called upon to combat cholera more 

 or less continuously from the time of the publication of the paper which 

 was read upon the subject of cholera before the Manila Medical Society 

 January, 1906, 2 up to the present. The total number of cases and deaths 

 reported from the beginning of the outbreak in 1902 to January 1, 1908. 

 was as follows : 



Table I. — Oases and deaths from cholera in the Philippine Islands from the 

 beginning of the outbreak in 1902 to January 1, 1908. 



Date. 



Cases. 



Deaths. 





166,252 

 11,691 



109,461 

 8,654 



March 8, 1904, to January 1, 1908 



177,943 



118,115 





Mortality, 74.03 per cent. 



It is apparent from the foregoing figures that cholera has caused great 

 havoc in these Islands. This is greatly to be deplored not only from the 

 standpoint of the useless loss of human life, but also because such con- 

 ditions retard the development of the country by reducing the already too 

 small number of workers. 



- At first sight it would appear as if the diffusion among the masses 

 of the plain, simple truth, that cholera can only be contracted by the 



1 Read at the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Philippine Islands Medical As- 

 sociation, February 28, 1908. 



"J. Am. Med. Ass. (1907), 48, 856. 



8!) 



