Annual departmental report by the Director of Medical and Health Services / Hong Kong.

  • Hong Kong. Medical Department.
Date:
[1953]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual departmental report by the Director of Medical and Health Services / Hong Kong. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Communicable Diseases 51. For the sixth year in succession, the Colony has been free from any major epidemic. • 52. In 1952 there was no case of cholera, plague, epidemic typhus, relapsing fever or yellow fever. There were however 3 cases of smallpox, two of which were imported. One local sporadic case occurred one month after the first imported case, but investigation of this case, which had travelled widely in the Colony whilst in the infective stage, showed no possible focus. Prophylactic measures were adopted immediately. Whether as a result of this, or as is more likely due to the immunity con¬ ferred by the high vaccinal state of the population, no second case occurred. 53. Six cases of scrub typhus were notified, all of which occurred in Military personnel. 54. There were 1 human and 6 animal fatal cases of rabies notified, all occurring in the New Territories. Control of dogs was strictly enforced in the urban area. In the rural areas, this problem proves much more difficult, because of the widely scattered homesteads. Enteric fever. 55. There were 1,230 cases with 158 deaths compared with 1,024 cases with 134 deaths—an incidence increase of 20.1%. The fatality rate has dropped from 50% in 1946 to 12.8% in 1952. 56. The source of infection is widespread as shown by scattered distribution of cases all over the Colony. There was no explosive outbreak in any particular area thus making difficult the tracing of the possible foci of infection. The squatter population accounted for 16% of the total, whilst the non-squatter population at the lower economic levels accounted for 50% of the total number of cases notified. The latter came mainly from the congested tenements of the city, where poor