History of medicine in the Philippines

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The history of medicine in the Philippines discusses the folk medicinal practices and the medical applications used in Philippine society from the prehistoric times before the Spaniards were able to set a firm foothold on the islands of the Philippines for over 300 years, to the transition from Spanish rule to fifty-year American colonial embrace of the Philippines, and up to the establishment of the Philippine Republic of the present. Although according to Dr. José Policarpio^[1] Bantug in his book A Short History of Medicine in the Philippines During The Spanish Regime, 1565-1898 there were "no authentic monuments have come down to us that indicate with some certainty early medical practices" regarding the "beginnings of medicine in the Philippines" a historian from the United States named Edward Gaylord Borne described that the Philippines became "ahead of all the other European colonies" in providing healthcare to ill and invalid people during the start of the 17th century,^[2] a time period when the Philippines was a colony of Spain. From the 17th and 18th centuries, there had been a "state-of-the-art medical and pharmaceutical science" developed by Spanish friars based on Filipino curanderos (curandero being a Spanish term for a Filipino "folk therapist") that was "unique to the [Philippine] islands."^[3]

The Philippine shamans (known by several names in different languages i.e. katalonan, babaylans, etc.) were the first healers within the tribal communities of ancient Philippines. Later emerged folk doctors and the training and deployment of true medical practitioners as can be seen in the progression of Philippine history. At present, medical personnel trained based on Western medicine - such as Filipino nurses, physicians, physical therapists, pharmacists, surgeons among others - coexists with the still thriving group of traditional healers that do not have formal education in scientific medicine who often cater to people living in impoverished areas of the Philippines.^[4]