280 AVASHBURN. 



tality rate in the United States), influenza, typhoid fever, diphtheria, 

 measles, and scarlet fever is comparatively small. 



With few exceptions the statistics of each succeeding year show a 

 steady decrease throughout the Islands of the inroads made by dangerous 

 communicable diseases. 



Tuberculosis remains in the Philippines as well as in all other coun- 

 tries, the "great white plague" among all races of people, and takes front 

 rank here among "dangerous communicable diseases." During the past 

 year one-seventh of the deaths in Manila were due to this cause. Prevent- 

 able with difficulty, it is far more serious in the Philippines than all of 

 the so-called tropical diseases combined, including Asiatic cholera and 

 bubonic plague. A bulletin on tuberculosis, prepared by the Bureau of 

 Health, showing how the disease is communicated and urging prophy- 

 lactic measures, has been widely distributed during the past year and is 

 being taught in the public schools. 



There appears to be a greater abatement among civilians than among 

 soldiers of diseases due to intestinal parasites. Intestinal diseases due 

 to parasites are positively known to be preventable by the exercise of 

 sufficient care in eating and drinking. Fortunately, too, the great 

 majority of cases yield to treatment. There is reason to believe that in 

 the near future intestinal parasites, through the achievements of pre- 

 ventive medicine, may cease to be important factors in producing intes- 

 tinal diseases. This accomplishment will be almost as much of a boon to 

 the tropics as was the discovery of the means of preventing yellow fever. 



Bubonic plague has disappeared from the Islands, no case having 

 been reported for nearly two years. During the fiscal year ended June 

 30, 1903, there were 160 eases, for the fiscal year 1904, 94 cases, for the 

 fiscal year 1905, 41 cases, and for the fiscal year 1906, 20 cases. Less 

 fortunate are the Asiatic cities on the China Sea, where eases are fre- 

 quently reported, and in India, where over 1,000,000 of the inhabitants 

 are dying annually from this disease. 



There is now in the Philippines much less smallpox than for many 

 years past, a direct result of the thorough and extensive campaign of 

 vaccination. Since the completion of the vaccination not a single death 

 from smallpox has been reported in several provinces where formerly 

 thousands died annually. During the last fiscal year 2,022,380 persons 

 were vaccinated, an increase of 1,072,255 over the preceding year. Of 

 three and one-half million persons vaccinated; one and one-third millions 

 were reported as successful vaccinations. Not one case of loss of life 

 or limb, and not one of serious infection has been reported. This record 

 is conclusive evidence of the care with which vaccine is prepared at the 

 Bureau of Science, and also, of the rigidness with which the instructions 

 for performing vaccinations are carried out. 



The working out of the leprosy problem has reached a stage which 

 practically insures its final and complete solution. The segregating of 



