Infectious Hepatitis: We had several epidemics of infectious hepatitis, which seemed to be self-limited. At times it was difficult to differentiate it from malaria with jaundice following Atabrine therapy.
In 1943, I had infectious hepatitis for about ten days and turned a bright yellow accompanied by severe nausea and vomiting. Every time someone would mention "food," I would run to
the window and retch. It seemed this happened about every five minutes during the day, as prisoners rarely talked about anything else. The individual would apologize for mentioning food, but it would be only a short time before it was the subject again.
Scurvy: There were several widespread epidemics of scurvy; we could stop these quickly if and when we could persuade the Japs to get a lime or two for each captive.
Diabetes Mellitus: When I entered camp, I was worried about diabetes mellitus, because there was no insulin or other medicine available to treat it. Ironically, starvation solved the problem.
The blood sugar never got up high enough to produce any symptoms.
Red Cross Packages: Just before Christmas in 1942, 1943 and
1944, the laps issued one or two Red Cross food packages, each of which contained seven pounds of food. After the package in 1942, the camp mortality fell miraculously from forty deaths daily to one or two a month. December 15, 1942, was the first day in camp in which there was not a single death.
Refeeding Gynecomastia: Three times during our thirty to thirty-six months of incarceration at Cabanatuan and in Bilibid, following the receipt of one, two or three Red Cross packages, making our diet adequate for from one to six weeks, up to six hundred "refeeding" type of breast swellings (gynecomastia) of various sizes appeared.
After the food in the packages was consumed by the captives, and the diet returned to the starvation-type, the captives with the swollen breasts noticed that the breasts were slowly and gradually returning to normal size.