2G4 EDITORIAL. 



Dr. Heiser has quoted would indicate, we shall be forced to the conclusion 

 that intestinal worms, as predisposing factors to disease, are of greater 

 importance from the viewpoint of the public health than the baeillaiy 

 infections, such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, dysentery, etc., to which the 

 weakened subject eventually succumbs. 



With regard to the incjuiry of the Secretary of War, of which Mr. 

 Worcester has spoken, as to the need in the Philippines of a special, 

 organized campaign against intestinal worms similar to that of the Anaa- 

 mia Commission in Porto Eico, it would appear that in these Islands we 

 have to deal with a condition different in several respects from that 

 which confronted the health authorities in Porto Bieo, the chief differ- 

 ence being the comparative rarity of severe manifestations of uncinariasis; 

 and another, the greater popidation here. The results of the examina- 

 tions at Bilibid indicate that not less than 5,000,000 of Filipinos are 

 infested with intestinal worms and that these infections have a fairly 

 even geographical distribution. To attempt to establish a helmintho- 

 logical clinic for these 5,000,000 of people would appear absolutely 

 impracticable, even though we had ten times the means at hand that we 

 now have, and took ten years for the campaign. Furthermore, such an 

 effort would prove entirely unavailing without a practical revolution in 

 certain sanitary conditions which prevail, as reinfection would constantly 

 occur. 



The one measure urgently demanded in the Philijjpines, in the light 

 of our present knowledge of intestinal worms here, would appear to be 

 the establishment of a system for the proper disposal of human excreta, 

 thereby removing the almost exclusive channel by which these infections 

 are spread. Until this is done, other measures would seem quite futile. 

 We need only mention that in disposing of human excreta we eliminate 

 one of the most dangerous channels for the dissemination of certain 

 other prevailing diseases in addition to infections with intestinal worms. 

 The methods to be employed and the question as to whether the work 

 could be done better by a special commission or through existing organi- 

 zations of the Government are subjects requiring special investigations. 



