HEALTH
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orthopaedic treatment. Acute cases are also dealt with at the Nethersole and Caritas hospitals.
Venereal diseases are diagnosed and treated free at clinics main- tained in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories. The recorded incidence of early infectious syphilis, which rose to its maximum in 1963 and fell steeply in the succeeding two years, remained low in 1966, which differs from experience in other parts of the world. Latent and late syphilis and gonorrhoea have stayed at comparatively unchanged levels and the incidence of chancroid and lymphogranuloma remained very low. The maintenance of this satisfactory position is partly due to energetic epidemic control by contact tracing, follow-up of defaulters and routine free ante- natal blood tests.
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Twenty outpatient sessions are held weekly throughout the Colony solely for the diagnosis and treatment of leprosy. In addition, sessions are held at social hygiene centres in conjunction with the dermatology and venereal disease clinics. Surgical appliances are fitted to patients with limb deformities. Prejudices against employ- ment or rehabilitation of cured leprosy patients are gradually but steadily disappearing and widespread publicity is leading to a more humane and progressive approach to the problem by the community. The Leprosy Mission-Hong Kong Auxiliary, with the aid of a government subvention, maintains 540 beds at the Hei Ling Chau Leprosarium to which infectious cases are admitted voluntarily. In addition a small number of patients requiring reconstructive operations are accepted.
Malaria continues to be endemic but presents a relatively minor problem, being restricted mainly to certain parts of the uncontrolled rural areas, the majority of cases during the year being reported from the Tai Po District situated on the shores of Tolo Harbour in the New Territories. The important carriers of malaria are Anopheles minimus, found breeding in hill streams, seepages and irrigation ditches, and A. jeyporiensis var. candidiensis, which breeds in rice cultivation, fallow rice fields, pools in rice stubble and water flowing through grass. Other anopheline species found in the Colony play little or no part in malaria transmission. Plasmodium vivax is the predominant parasite responsible for the infection.