HEALTH
135
were bacteriologically confirmed on the 17th August as being due to Vibrio comma of the Ogawa group. Hong Kong thereupon declared itself an infected area and put plans to deal with an epidemic into full operation.
Response to the call for immunization was immediate and almost overwhelming; in fact, the numbers attending inoculation centres far exceeded anything either anticipated or ever experienced before. What had been considered quite adequate stocks of vaccine to meet all demands and sufficient for 1,200,000 persons were almost exhausted by the evening of the 19th August. Supplies of vaccine were then sought from outside the Colony to supplement local production. These supplies began to arrive on the afternoon of the 20th August, so that a reduction in the scale of the immunization campaign was necessary on that day only. Between the 14th and 29th August over two million people, that is about two-thirds of the population, had been immunized; of this number, just over one million were inoculated at Government Centres during the five days from the 17th to 21st August. Sample surveys carried out after the rush was over indicated that an 80% population cover had been achieved.
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This was made possible by mobilizing all staff who could be spared from routine duties, by turning over the whole Maternal and Child Health staff to inoculation duties, and by designating all 28 Maternal and Child Health Clinics, district Health Offices and other established centres as inoculation centres. In addition, mobile inoculation teams toured all areas most exposed to risk on land and sea, particularly, on the western seaboard of the territory. Vaccine sufficient for 500,000 inoculations was issued free to private practitioners and to organizations employing large numbers of persons who could be inoculated at their places of work.
Between the 17th August and the end of the year there were 130 bacteriologically confirmed infections of whom 53 were asymp- tomatic carriers detected amongst the contacts of clinical cases. There was a total of 15 deaths, seven of which occurred in persons brought in dead to the public mortuaries. The other eight deaths occurred amongst the 77 patients treated in hospital.
Three hospital centres were designated for the reception and treatment of cholera cases, one on Hong Kong Island, one in