FORT HEALTH
203. The Port Health Administration is responsible for all measures designed to prevent the introduction of quarantinable infectious diseases into the Colony; for the sanitary control of the ports of entry by sea. air and rail; for the carrying out of the provisions of the International Sanitary Regulations as embodied in the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance and the Asiatic Emigration Ordinance; for the com- pilation of epidemiological statistics and reports and for the general organization of prophylactic vaccination campaigns. There are also statutory responsibilities under the Hong Kong Merchant Shipping Ordinance. A weekly exchange of epidemiological information is main- tained with the World Health Organization Epidemiological Station in Geneva.
204. All persons entering the Colony are subject to a quarantine inspection. Arrivals by sca are inspected at the two quarantine anchor- ages in Kowloon Bay and off Stonecutters Island respectively; arrivals by air are inspected at Kai Tak Airport and persons crossing the land frontier by rail at the Lo Wu Quarantine post. All immigrants without valid certificates are vaccinated againsı smallpox.
205. Other routine work carried out includes the deratting, disinsect- ing and fumigation of ships, sanitary duties in the port and airport, in- cluding supervision of water supplies control, measures to keep the port and airport free from Aedes aegypt, and inspection of all vessels carry- ing more than twenty unberthed immigrants. A service rendering medical advice by wireless, on request, to ships at sea is also maintained. In addition to routine work, the Port Health Launches, equipped with stretchers, first aid equipment and radio telephones, provide a sea am. bulance service in the port area.
206. Four Port Health inoculation centres are maintained for the convenience of persons requiring International Certificates for travel, two on Hong Kong Island and two in Kowloon, including one at the airport. Vaccinations are also offered free at these centres to members of the public. Inoculators are posted to various centres throughout the Colony and are responsible for the field work in connexion with im- munization campaigns which are carried out under the immediate super- vision of area Health Officers.
207. The new Terminal Building at the Kai Tak Airport was official- ly opened by H.E. the Governor on the 2nd November, 1962, and became operative on the 12th November. Out-patient clinic facilities are provided
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in the Airport for Government servants working at the Airport and for their families. This clinic includes a vaccination centre for members of the public who require International Certificates of Vaccination and it also serves as a first-aid post.
208. Quarantine restrictions were maintained in respect of the Philip- pines and the Kwangtung Province, and were applied to Taiwan when it was infected with cholera in July 1962.
209. A case of cholera El Tor, the first to occur since the outbreak in 1961, was confirmed on the 23rd August and the Colony was declared to be an infected local area on that date. Further cases were reported and details of the outbreak are given elsewhere in this report,
DISTRICT MIDWIFERY SERVICES
210. The difficulties attending home deliveries under existing housing conditions and the growing appreciation of the advantages of the skilled attention available in institutions have resulted in a continuing decline in domiciliary midwifery. During the year only 3.5% of all registered births Look place in the home and the maternal mortality rate, which has shown a dramatic fall in recent years, remained at the low level of 0.48 deaths per thousand births.
211. It is now Government policy gradually to reduce facilities for domiciliary midwifery and to provide instead bods for normal mid- wifery in all new clinics constructed in urban areas where the needs of the district warrant this provision. In the New Territories the policy has been, and still continues to be, to include maternity beds in all new clinics. During the year two such clinics were opened in urban areas. namely, the Anne Black Clinic at North Point and the Jockey Club Clinic at Wang Tau Hom providing a total of 31 additional maternity beds.
212. The work of the Government Midwifery Service during 1962 is summarized in Table 15.
GOVERNMENT MIDWIFERY SERVICE, 1963Q
TABLE 15
Maternity beds in hospitals
359
Maternity beds in maternity homes (urban) Maternity beds in maternity homes (rural)
34
147
Midwives (excluding hospitals).
82
Cases attended (excluding hospitals)
17,828
Average case-load for each midwife (excluding hospitals)
217
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