[30. Faccal surveys were carried out at intervals from June 1961 onwards in healthy children under the age of 5 years to obtain informa- tion on the seasonal variations in the excretor rates of poliovirus and other enteric viruses. The results obtained are shown in Table 6.
TABLE 6
FOLIOVIRUS AND OTHER ENTERK VIRUSES IN THE 0-5 AGE GROUP 1961-62
Date
Number examined
Negative
Positive Poliovirus Type 1 Type 2 Type 3.
Total
June 1961
24*
140
10
24 (9.3%)
Poaldive other enteric vizures 91 (35.0%)
- 1
August 1961
147
116
N (44%)
120 (48.6%)
November
1961 238
199
1
2 (0.8%)
38 (15.9%)
Junuary 1962 April 1962
CIL 207
190
3
5 (203)
16(7.5%)
168
S
5 (2.4%)
34 (84%)
131. Although Type 2 virus was not isolated in the course of the faccal surveys, a serological survey carried out in 1960 indicated that there is a wide circulation of all three types of poliomyelitis virus amongst the child population.
132. During February and March 1962 in conjunction with the Inter- national Social Service and the Lederie Corporation, children in orphan- ages destined for adoption into families outside Hong Kong were given trivalent oral poliomyelitis vaccine, Certain of the staff of the Department assisted with the work thus gaining practical experience prior to a mass immunization campaign, using oral vaccine, planned for late 1962. The marked drop in the excrelor rate for polio and other enteric viruses sug- gests that the optimum time for mass immunization is during the winter months of the year.
Tuberculosis
133. Tuberculosis remains the major public health problem in Hong Kong and although the results achieved in recent years are promising, much remains to be done. The problem is considered in detail in para- graphs 140 to 197.
Other Notifiable Infectious Diseases
Influenza
134. Notification of this infection is entirely voluntary. Cases report- ed during the year numbered 6,223 with 39 deaths compared with 5,727 and 26 deaths in 1960.
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Ophthalmia Neonatorum
135, 250 cases were reported as compared with 254 in 1960.
Puerperal Fever
136. Only 2 cases, both fatal, were registered during the year, Deliveries in both the cases took place in the home without the help of a doctor or a qualified midwife.
Scarlet Fever
137. Sporadic cases of this infection occurred throughout the year. 29 cases were reported as against 17 in 1960.
Whooping Cough
138. 47 cases were notified during the year, the lowest on record since 1949. One death was reported.
Other Communicable diseases which are not notifiable
Tetanus
139. Of 142 cases of tetanus admitted to hospital. 92 occurred in new born children. Most of the cases of tetanus neonatorum occur in infants delivered at home in villages situated almost exclusively in the New Territories. In such cases, assistance by an untrained person, the use of unsterile material and instruments and the common practice of applying ground ginger root to the umbilicus as a styptic, all combine to give a grave risk of tetanus neonatorum, Children attending Maternal and Child Health Centres are given routine immunization against Letanus using the toxoid preparations. Health education of parents and others in the areas most affected is a slow process despite the very considerable efforts of the health staff of the New Territories.
TUBERCULOSIS.
140. The steady decline in the death rate from tuberculosis, which reached a peak in 1951, has continued. However, the morbidity, although changing in pattern, remains high and the figure of an average of 2% of persons with active tuberculosis in the community has not changed significantly. Of this 2% one fifth are open cases, infective to others.
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