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Culion Leper
Colony is an interesting institution and is in many
aspects a unique one.
Primarily, it was
established to protect non-leprous people from those
afflicted with the disease.
The protection was done by
segregating and putting the leprosy patients into place
solely for them.
The welfare of the patient
was just secondary.
The government sees to it
that they live and die in as much comfort as possible
with the people of their kind. One of the most important
contribution and role of Culion Leper Colony was in the
research arena, where numerous and extensive studies on
the epidemiology of the disease and the quest for the
cure were conducted and for the above objectives and
goal – Culion has serve the purpose well.
It had attracted
devoted and committed physicians and provided them
opportunites to study in depth this ancient disease by
conducting scientific researches and applying the
available methods of treatment at that time. Culion
became the largest leprosarium in the world having in
its disposal the largest number of all types, degrees,
stages of advancement of the disease. It was a
well-organized institution and it became the
mecca of scientists and people
who were interested in the cure of the disease. The
research which started in 1921, done among the “inmates”
led to the development of new policies on isolation and
clinical trials of early anti-leprotic medicines
particularly the Chaulmoogra oil and its derivatives
where the patients had been extensively studied for the
new treatment modalities which significantly contributed
to the present knowledge in combating the disease.
On May 27,
1906, at about 4:00 P.M. of that day, the coast guard
cutters Polillo
and Mindanao
brought to Culion from
Cebu
the first batch of 370 patients in accordance with the
“Segregation Law on Leprosy.”
Dr. Victor Heiser, the
Director of Health, was with them.
They were received by Dr.
Carlos de Mey, the Chief of the Colony; the four French
nuns of St. Paul de Chartres acting as nurses - Sisters
Therese de Jesus, Marie du bon Pasteur Lintot, Calixte
Christen, Sidonie Bureau (the Superior); and a Spanish
Jesuit priest, Fr. Manuel Valles, S.J.
Of the 370 patients who
made the laborious journey to Culion, only one patient
died.
This commenced the
continuous transfer of patients for isolation and
segregation to Culion until the establishment of the
regional treatment and later became Regional Sanitaria,
where it started to earn a new meaning, a new
destination description of the “Island
of the Living Dead” a leper colony. When it started, it
had about 85 houses, 6 of which were concrete and were
purchased from their former owners who were transferred
to the neighboring islands as they were compelled to
leave Culion - a normal community as others in the
province at that time – to give way as mandated by law
for the establishment of a national leprosarium that
will be the second home and final destiny of thousands
of leprosy patients in the country. The rests were made
of light materials. There were other temporary
structures. On the beach west of the promontory, was the
nuns’ quarter; on the northern shore which later became
the colony proper was the Catholic chaplain’s quarter;
and on the eastern beach part was the quarantine
station. The former
Recoleto Convent was converted
into a hospital. The shed of this convent served as mess
hall and kitchen of the hospital. The Chief of the
colony stayed in a nipa roofed office at Siuk, which was
across the
Culion
Bay.
The present Barangay Balala was just a narrow beach on
those times.
On the same year,
July 4th,
the second batch of patients arrived.
Like the first batch, most
of them were Visayans.
Their physical conditions
were worst and most were severely disfigured and
subsequent expeditions were entirely of same picture:
far advanced leprosy lesions; weak physical conditions;
and generally with concurrent illnesses and most notable
was the increasing younger age group in their prime and
productivity.
Of the 802 leprosy patients
brought in Culion during the year, 253 died before the
year ended.
A government coast guard
vessel kept on bringing patients at 2 to 3 months
intervals.
By the end of 1910, 5,303
patients had been brought in Culion.
With this number, 3,154
died due to leprosy complications; 33 were paroled; and
114 absconded which after 1920, the abscondees were not
so much of a problem; averaging less than 5 persons a
year.
However, the mortality rate
remained high for several years.
The highest was in 1908
when the death toll was 1,221.
The lack of personnel to
man the hospital, the inadequacy of facilities and
supply for the medical needs of the victims, and the
aggravating effect of illnesses such as cholera,
beriberi, gangrene and septicemia, which lowered their
immunity to the diseases, made the patients more
susceptible to leprosy complications.
However, as years passed
by, the physical conditions of the patients improved and
most deficiencies were remedied.
The
administrative control of Culion reservation was the
responsibility of the Secretary of Health.
The Secretary had the
authority “to make, promulgate, and enforce in and for
said Reservation, and in upon the waters thereof, such
rules and regulations, consistent with law, as may be
necessary for the efficient control, protection, and
management of the Culion Leper Colony”.
(Revised Administrative
Code, Section 1066).
Under the Secretary of
Health, the immediate in-charge of administration at
Culion was the Chief of Colony whose duties, authority,
and responsibilities blanketed the functions of not only
the section superintendents but also controlled the
activities of the non-leper population, a work done
ordinarily by a municipal mayor.
He had the ex-officio, the
power of justice of the peace, and as a public notary.
There was
only handful of colony staff at the start, the Chief of
Leper Colony was the only physician until an additional
doctor came in 1911.
The Sisters of St. Paul de
Chartres were the only nurses and social workers until a
nurse came in 1916.
In 1920, four medical
doctors came to augment existing staff.
The Administrative Staff
consisted of Disbursing Officer, Property Custodian,
Superintendent of Construction, Farm Adviser, Sanitary
Inspector, and other staff.
In 1922-1929, when there
was an increase in budget allocation for Culion, the
technical personnel, were augmented and reorganized to
four sections namely:
the Administrative Section,
Medical Section, Pathological Section, and Chemical
Section.
All the sections were under
the Chief of the colony.
The use of
Chaulmoogra as treatment for leprosy, and the
implementation of the “parole system”, had been
subjected to objection by the segregated patients of
Culion.
But this agitation and
sentimental objections were due to the misinformation
from the part of the government and due to the
resistance to isolation of the patients who contacted
the disease in the prime of their lives and or on the
periods of their active social or professional lives.
In an effort to
remedy most of the objectionable features of the
“segregation of lepers” in Culion, Dr. L. Guerrero and
Dr. Casimiro B. Lara, proposed in 1923 to the Council of
Hygiene to put up regional leprosaria which would be
established in the several regions of the
Philippines.
In addition to Culion Leper
Colony and the Leper Department of the San Lazaro
Hospital, eight regional leprosaria and sub-treatment
stations were strategically established in the eight
regions by 1930.
From an average of 800
patients per year, the operation of the regional
sanitaria and sub-treatment stations had literally
reduced the number of leprous patients sent in Culion to
250.
These leprosaria also set
the pace and tone of “home” treatment of leprosy,
particularly the early or “mild” forms.
According to records, the
exodus
of patients and the death toll during the Pacific War
greatly reduced the number of patients in the colony.
The
promulgation of R.A. 753 in 1952, which allowed home
isolation and treatment of patients under approved
conditions, and the R.A. 4073 in 1964, which liberalized
the treatment of leprous patients, further reduced the
number of the population of Culion Sanitarium.
Due to this, the work of
the sanitarium became mostly medical.
R.A. 7193, a
law converting Culion Sanitarium into a municipality,
changed the political and administrative organization
and system of the colony.
However, the law did not
end the sanitarium’s vital role with regards to public
health.
Instead, it greatly
responded to the constant increasing health needs of the
people not only of Culion but of the neighboring places.
Had not Culion existed for
the purpose of eradication of leprosy, it could have not
provided the needed medical assistance to the
non-leprous population since there are only few old and
advanced leprous patients left to the care of the
government.
In 1992, Rep.
Brown Sandoval introduced House Bill No. 5709, an act
converting Culion Sanitarium to Culion Sanitarium and
General
Hospital,
to the 12th
Congress of the House of the Representative.
In 1994, the Department of
Health issued Circular No. 72, Re:
Conversion Plan of Culion
Sanitarium into a General
Hospital.
Today Culion
Sanitarium and General Hospital (CSGH) is a secondary
level hospital, the only general hospital operating in
the Calamianes Group of
Island.
The hospital provides
health care services to the four of Calamian
municipalities:
Culion, Coron, Linapacan,
and Busuanga and the neighboring municipalities of El
Nido and Taytay.
Its mandate is still a
sanitarium, but it has expanded its services similar to
a general hospital.
CSGH is involved with
Custodial Care, which services the leprosy patients
confined at the invalid wards; General Hospital Service,
which provides general services to the Culion populace
and its neighboring municipalities; and Public Health
Service, which provides the preventive and promotive
health aspects and which works jointly with the Local
Government Unit (LGU) in providing health education to
the different barangays and in advocating the health
program of Department of Health.
In 2003, CSGH
participated in the (BCCL) Busuanga, Coron, Culion and
Linapacan Districts Health Insurance Program.
This health insurance
program benefits the institution by augmenting its
income which is generated from the indigent members of
the four municipalities confined in the hospital.
Culion
Sanitarium & General
Hospital
is a Philippine Health Insurance Company
accredited hospital.
At present, it continuously
conducts research in the control of leprosy not only in
Culion but in the whole
province of Palawan. |
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