Dutch legislation concerning infectious diseases dated from 1872 and 1884, when was issued the Wet op de besmettelijke ziekten(Law on contagious diseases). This law distinguished seven types of contagious diseases. In the Netherlands Indies, the NI Ordinance of February 1892 summed up a limited number of contagious diseases and emphasized the dangers of importing these diseases from overseas. Both these legal statutes regulated the medical supervision , publication, isolation, nursing and transport of patients. These regulations also stipulated the way deceased persons should be buried and how to dispose of contaminated objects. The care for disinfection included expropriation, destruction and compensation.
Before 1890, a few hospitals, sometimes temporary facilities, were built near large harbors to cope with sudden epidemics, imported from abroad. Often they were extensions or annexes to existing general hospitals, but in some cases there was created a separate hospital.
After 1890, hospitals for infectieus diseases were established in three Harbour cities. One was at Surabaya. In 1894, a cholera hospital was built on the river Oedjoeng. In 1893 the government supplied an amount of ƒ 8.710 to build a cholera-hospital at Olehleh (Atjeh).