166
HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
A careful check was kept on arrivals by sea and air from infected areas and on persons entering the Colony by the land frontier station at Lo Wu.
In the absence of epidemiological information from the Chinese Mainland it was considered advisable to continue to regard all Chinese ports east of Canton as being possibly infected with smallpox.
Ships were inspected and fumigated as necessary with sulphur or cyanide and issued with International Deratting or Deratting Exemption Certificates.
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Mosquito control measures were continued throughout the year, and the port and airport were kept free from Aedes aegypti in its larval and adult stages, as required by Article 20 of the International Sanitary Regulations.
The dock area and airport are included in the rodent control scheme for the Colony, and returns of rodents destroyed and spleen smears examined for P.pestis were submitted weekly to the W.H.O. Epidemiological Intelli- gence Station, Singapore.
A constant check was maintained on the purity of drink- ing water supplies to ships by bacteriological examination of weekly samples from water boats and dock hydrants, and immediate remedial action was taken when necessary by the Water Authority or Port Health Office.
Maternal and Child Health Services. The Maternal and Child Health Services continued to expand their activities throughout the year. Six full-time centres and twenty sub- sidiary part-time centres are now in operation. There has been an increase to 21 in the number of Health Visitors available for this Service which has made possible wider and better health education by means of home visits.
In September 1957 a large scale trial of treatment with isonicotinic acid hydrazide given to tuberculin positive children was commenced in the main Maternal and Child