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Kowloon and one on Cheung Chau Island. A fourth centre was equipped at Tai O on the western tip of Lantau Island but was not required. All suspected cases of cholera were sent to the nearest centre where immediate emergency treatment was given. For cases occurring in the New Territories, rehydration was started at the clinic where the provisional diagnosis was made and con- tinued during the journey to the nearest cholera hospital. Once a case was confirmed to be cholera, all immediate contacts were isolated at the Chatham Road camp which had been designated as the Quarantine Centre. The premises from which the case came were then disinfected and a police guard was placed on the property.
On admission to the Quarantine Centre all contacts were medically examined, and inoculated if necessary, and a rectal swab was taken. They were then passed to a reception centre, where clothing was issued while the garments they were wearing were taken away for disinfection and laundering. Thereafter quarantine was maintained for five days or until three successive negative rectal swabs had been obtained from the bacteriologically con- firmed carriers. Altogether 731 contacts were quarantined between the 17th August and the 30th September.
During the first twelve days of the outbreak a total of 52 clinical cases were admitted to hospital, the greatest number occurring in any one day being eight. From the 28th August onwards there was a gradual decrease in the number of cases, nineteen occurring in the next 12 days and only five between the 10th and 23rd September. On the 12th October Hong Kong was declared free of cholera and quarantine restrictions were lifted. One further isolated infection was picked up in the laboratory on the 8th November from a case of presumed gastro-enteritis which was subcultured routinely for cholera. This was in a man who had not been inoculated and who lived on his own without any im- mediate contacts. He had responded to the routine treatment for gastro-enteritis. In view of the scale of immunization achieved and the other measures of environmental hygiene still being maintained at the time, it was not thought necessary to impose restrictions
once more.
Strict measures of environmental hygiene were taken throughout the emergency, special attention being paid to unwholesome or