142
HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
hygiene and sanitation. Response to the inoculation campaigns was better during the year and the comparative figures are:
1958
1959
First doses
103,381
141,342
Second doses 'Booster doses'
70,833
101,174
95,044
92,712
Bacillary Dysentery. There was a 56.4% increase in the number of notifications compared with 1958, but no distinct seasonal varia- tion was noted and the fatality rate was lower than in the previous year. More carriers were discovered and treated. The comparative figures are:
1958
1959
Cases
Deaths
Carriers detected and treated
424
25
68
663
26
160
Much health education work in the prevention of these infections is carried out by Health Officers amongst those connected with the handling, preparation and sale of food.
Measles. The incidence of notified cases was again at much the same level as in previous years, with 743 cases as against 786 in 1958. The case fatality rate was 23.7% (24.3% in 1958). Of the total cases notified 506 occurred during the first quarter of the year. Measles is known to be a mild but widespread disease, and the high percentage of fatal cases is related to the number of cases notified rather than to the virulence of the infections. Nevertheless it causes more deaths than diphtheria and amongst the deaths from communicable diseases ranks next to tuberculosis. The deaths are almost entirely due to severe bronchopneumonia which is encoun- tered too late for treatment to be effective.
Other Communicable Diseases. The notified incidence of influ- enza was just over one-third of that of the previous year and 26 deaths were recorded as due to influenza. Notifications of influenza have been carried out on a voluntary basis since the epidemic of 1957-8. Whooping cough accounted for 110 cases and scarlet fever for 24 cases. Only one case of puerperal fever was recorded.
HOSPITALS AND CLINICS
Apart from nursing homes, and excluding institutions maintained by the Armed Forces, there are 31 hospitals in the Colony, of