HONGKONG.
REPORT ON CERTAIN CASES OF ENTERIC FEVER.
Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor.
501
31
No. 3
97
SANITARY BOARD OFFICES,
HONGKONG, August 20, 1897.
SIR,
I have the honour to submit, for the information of His Excellency the Governor, the following report concerning the cases of Enteric Fever which have occurred in the Colony during the current
year:
Fifty-six cases have been reported to me, of which forty-three were Europeans, seven were Chinese, five were Japanese and one an Indian; of these fifty-six cases, nineteen were imported into the Colony by the shipping, leaving thirty-seven cases to be accounted for locally, twenty-seven of which were of European nationality. In some of these, it has been impossible to trace, with any degree of certainty, the source of the infection, and in such I have been compelled to fall back upon the theory of an infected food-supply of Chinese origin; in the series of European cases, however, which occurred during the month of June, it is very clear to my mind that they must have had some con- nection with the milk supplied to these persons, and this conviction became more certain when I proved that such milk-supply was in part derived from Chinese sources, and that these sources were extremely liable to contamination, owing to the adulteration of the milk with water. In a report upon this subject submitted by me to the Government, last month, I suggested the introduction of an Ordinance similar in effect to the Imperial Infectious Diseases Prevention Act of 1890, empowering the Government to prohibit, for a time, the supply of milk from any dairy, when such milk is likely to cause or has caused infectious disease in the Colony, and I have drafted, for the approval of the Honourable the Attorney General, a Bill which would furnish these powers.
The most recent cases of Enteric Fever which have been reported are six Chinese cases, all from one address, and these are clearly traceable, in my opinion, to an imported European case, the patient dying, shortly after arrival, in one of the Missionary Homes in the City.
I have the honour to be,
Honourable J. H. STEWART LOCKHART,
Colonial Secretary.
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
FRANCIS W. CLARK,
Medical Officer of Health.