Fate of Culion patients presented to the local negative examining committee from 1922 to 1938

1. Only 4,624 patients, or about 17 per cent of all the inmates admitted to Culion (including births), have been presented to the Local Negative Examining Committee from 1922 to 1938, inclusive2. Two thousand four hundred and fifty-seven, or 53.1 per cent, were actually outside of Culion released as negatives3. Five hundred and thirteen, or about 11 per cent, died while under jurisdiction of the Committee4. One thousand six hundred and twenty-six, or 35.2 per cent, were still on the Committee list (Table 1), of whom 1,167 or about 71.7 per cent were actually positive (Table 4) and only 459 or about 28.3 per cent were actually negative (also Table 4)5. Two hundred and fifty-five, or 5.5 per cent, of the total presented to the Committee are patients with arrested cases at present in Culion who have shown no intention of leaving the place (Table 4)The foregoing is the data as of December 31, 1938, of the fate of all Culion patients presented to the Local Examining Committee as gathered from their bacteriological records in the Pathological SectionNo attempt at comments or suggestions is made, but if this report serves to inform the public of the predicaments in which tese lepers presented to the Committee find themselves, then the efforts of the writer have not been exerted in vain. (Summary)

Influence of climatic changes on "interruptions" and "relapses" in leprosy

1. Individual bacteriological records of Culion patients presented to the Negative Committee from 1922 to 1939 were studied to determine the possible influence of the local climatic changes on 163 "interruptions" and 279 "relpases" discovered2. The "interruptions" that occurred in the cool period were 38.1 per cent; 33.7 per cent in the hot period; and 28.2 per cent in the rainy period. In the cool period 38 per cent of the "relapses" occurred; 30.8 per cent in the hot period; and 31.2 per cent in the rainy period3. Considering that the climate in Culion is fairly uniform and without abrupt changes throughout the year, it is believed that the very slight apparent injurious effects of the cool weather on the patients were only accidental rather than real, and that possibly in the Philippines climatic changes play a very small or negligible role in the seasonal aggravation of the disease.(Summary)