The Department of Health (DOH; ) is the executive department of the government of the Philippines responsible for ensuring access to basic public health services by all Filipinos through the provision of quality health care, the regulation of all health services and products. It is the government's over-all technical authority on health. It has its headquarters at the San Lazaro Compound, along Rizal Avenue in Manila. The head of the department is currently Maria Rosario Vergeire as the officer-in-charge and is nominated by the president of the Philippines and confirmed by the Commission on Appointments. The health secretary is a member of the Cabinet. History Americans assembled a military Board of Health on Sept. 10, 1898, with its formal organization on September 29. Upon its creation, Dr. Frank S. Bourns is assigned as president while Dr. C. L. Mullins is assigned as assistant surgeon. The purpose of this Board of Health was to care for injured American troops but as the hostilities between Filipinos and Americans waned in 1901, a civilian Board of Health was now deemed appropriate with Dr. L. M. Maus as the first health commissioner. In the early 1900s, 200,222 lives including 66,000 children were lost; three percent of the population was decimated in the worst epidemic in Philippine health history. In view of this, the Americans organized and erected several institutions, including the Bureau of Governmental Laboratories, which was built in 1901 for medical research and vaccine production. The Americans, led by Dean Worcester built the UP College of Medicine and Surgery in 1905, with Johns Hopkins University serving as a blueprint, at the time, one of the best medical schools in the world. By 1909, nursing instruction was also begun at the Philippine Normal School. In terms of public health, the Americans improved on the sewer system and provided a safer water supply. In 1915, the Bureau of Health was reorganized and renamed into the Philippine Health Service. During the succeeding years leadership and a number of health institutions were already being given to Filipinos, in accordance with the Organic Act of 1916. On January 1, 1919, Dr. Vicente De Jesus became the first Filipino to head the Health portfolio. In 1933, after a reorganization, the Philippine Health Service reverted to being known as the Bureau of Health. It was during this time that it pursued its official journal, The Health Messenger and established Community