HEALTH
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also give advice to the public, the Armed Services and Government departments on matters concerning the control of rodents, insects and other pests. The work of rodent control is important because it enables a watch to be kept against the possible introduction of plague by infected fleas on rats. During the year 350,243 rats were collected from public rat-bins and other places. About one-third of these are regularly examined for signs of plague. Fleas from rats caught alive are collected and identified. The examination of rats caught near the seaboard was intensified after cases of plague had been reported in and around Saigon in the early summer.
NEW TERRITORIES
The Director of Urban Services is responsible in the New Territories for public cleansing, markets and hawker areas, public latrines and bathhouses, cemeteries, burials, public parks, play- grounds and beaches and since 1963 has become the licensing authority for premises used for the processing and sale of food for human consumption, for hawkers and private markets. The District Commissioner remains the licensing authority for slaughter- houses and offensive trades though in practice he exercises this function on the advice of the Director of Urban Services.
The Principal Medical Officer of Health, New Territories, is responsible to the Director of Medical and Health Services for most hospital, clinic and other medical facilities in the New Territories. He also advises the Director of Urban Services on New Territories health matters and exercises day-to-day supervision over certain staff of the Urban Services Department. In the remoter areas of the New Territories, where the Urban Services Depart- ment cannot effectively operate, the Principal Medical Officer of Health has executive responsibility for sanitation and hygiene, as well as for the development of health services. Here the emphasis is on health education, advising villagers on elementary sanitation and ensuring that village houses are built to certain minimum health standards.
The Urban Services Department carries out regular street- sweeping and refuse collections in the New Territories townships and, during the year, these were again extended to cover more of the rural areas served by road. Steady progress is being made with the construction of public flush latrines and bathhouses in