An Act Providing for the Compulsory Vaccination of the Inhabitants of the Philippine Islands

December 2, 1901

ACT NO. 309

AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE COMPULSORY VACCINATION OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

SECTION 1. In municipalities where municipal boards of health have not been established, or where said boards have been established but their presidents are unable, without assistance, to thoroughly protect by vaccination the inhabitants of their respective municipalities against smallpox, the Commissioner of Public Health shall appoint, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, for the purpose of carrying on public vaccinations, such public vaccinators or other employees as the Commission shall authorize.

SECTION 2. Every person living in the Philippine Islands who cannot furnish satisfactory evidence, either by a certificate of recent date from a president of a municipal board of health, public vaccinator, duly qualified physician, or such other person as the Board of Health for the Philippine Islands may designate, or otherwise, to the effect that he is immune against smallpox, shall submit to vaccination as often as may be required by a municipal or provincial board of health, or by the Board of Health for the Philippine Islands; and such vaccination shall be performed gratis.

SECTION 3. Every parent, guardian, or person having charge of one or more children over three months of age shall see that they are presented for examination and vaccination at such place and time as may be specified by a president of a municipal board of health or a public vaccinator, and that they are returned on the eighth day after such presentation to said place so that the result of the vaccination may be verified: Provided, That any person may call upon a president of a municipal board of health or a public vaccinator to perform vaccinations at the residence of such person, in which cases the vaccinations shall be performed as requested, and the person performing them shall collect the sum of one peso for each person so vaccinated. The funds accruing from such charges for vaccination shall be paid weekly by the persons collecting them into the treasury of the municipality where the vaccination is performed.

SECTION 4. On the presentation for vaccination of any child which is found, by reason of its health, to be unfit for the operation, presidents of municipal boards of health or public vaccinators shall postpone such vaccination, but shall give due notice to parents, guardians, or other persons having charge of such child to return it at some fixed time, which instruction shall be obeyed by its parent, guardian, or other person in charge.

SECTION 5. Every parent, guardian, or other person in charge of one or more children who shall be found guilty of neglecting or refusing to comply with the provisions of section two and three of this Act shall be fined five dollars, in money of the United States, for each offense. One-half of the fine shall be paid to the person or persons giving the information leading to conviction and the other half shall be paid into the municipal treasury.

SECTION 6. The presidents, principals, boards of directors, managers, or any person or persons having charge of universities, colleges, academies, seminaries, public or parochial schools, orphanages, or asylums, or other places where children are educated, reared, or cared for, shall present such children for vaccination within said institution at such times as may be specified by presidents of municipal boards of health or public vaccinators. Any such person or persons refusing to comply with the provisions of this section shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars for each offense.

SECTION 7. Any person reported as unprotected against smallpox who is unable to submit satisfactory evidence of vaccination as provided in section two, and who resists vaccination when directed to submit to it by the proper authorities shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars, in money of the United States, for each offense.

SECTION 8. Presidents of municipal boards of health, public vaccinators, and all other persons authorized to vaccinate against smallpox under the provisions of this Act, shall furnish each person successfully vaccinated by them a certificate to the effect that he has been so vaccinated, setting forth the date of the vaccination, the number of marks made, and their location, and shall also record this information in a book to be kept by him for that purpose, for each municipality, which book in case of his death or removal from office, shall be deposited with the secretary of the municipality.

SECTION 9. Presidents of municipal boards of health and public vaccinators shall begin the work of public vaccination immediately after their appointment and on the first day of January of each year thereafter, and shall continue it until every person liable to vaccination in the territory assigned to them has become thoroughly protected against smallpox, or until such time as may be designated by provincial boards of health, or the Board of Health for the Philippine Islands.

SECTION 10. Each municipal council shall furnish a suitable room or rooms in its municipality for the purpose of carrying on the work of public vaccination.

SECTION 11. In municipalities where municipal boards of health exist, public vaccinators, if employed, shall be subordinate to them, and shall comply with all directions from such boards which are not in conflict with the sanitary laws of the Philippine Islands or with the regulations of their respective provincial boards of health or of the Board of Health for the Philippine Islands. In municipalities where municipal boards of health have not been established, public vaccinators shall be subordinate to their respective provincial boards of health, and, where there are no provincial boards of health, to the Board of Health for the Philippine Islands.

SECTION 12. Presidents of municipal boards of health and public vaccinators shall report to municipal boards of health all births that may come to their notice, giving in each case the sex of the child, the name of its parents, and the date of its birth.

SECTION 13. The Commissioner of Public Health is hereby authorized to sell any vaccine virus not needed for public vaccinations to the Army, the Navy, or the Marine-Hospital Service of the United States, to private hospitals, or institutions, and to pharmacists, physicians, or other persons requiring it, at such prices as may be fixed by the Board of Health for the Philippine Islands, accounting for the proceeds of such sales in accordance with law.

SECTION 14. All expenses incurred in the operation of vaccine institutes, and in carrying on public vaccinations in the Philippine Islands, except the salaries of presidents of provincial or municipal boards of health, shall be paid from the funds of the Insular Treasury, and shall be disbursed by the disbursing officer of the Board of Health for the Philippine Islands.

SECTION 15. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

ENACTED, December 2, 1901.