Under the guidance of the Health Education Co-ordinating
Committee, the CHEU adopted the 1986 WHO World Health Day Theme of "Healthy Living, Everyone a Winner" as the subject for major publicity campaign in 1986. A carnival was held at Victoria Park in November with game stalls, entertainment on stage, exhibition, dental checkup, fitness test and leaflet distribution. A series of health columns in two newspapers helped to perpetuate the theme on healthy life styles.
Other subjects for health education and publicity campaigns during the year included Food Hygiene, Home Safety, Organ Donation, Malaria, AIDS & Mental Health.
The 5th course of the popular Young Health Leaders Training Project was conducted in July & August, training 253 students from 37 secondary schools in health as well leadership skills.
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Other activities for youths included anti-smoking, adolescent health and sex education workshops at the audio-visual centres. increasing number of persons also visited the centres to obtain information on various health topics.
An innovative pilot project called the Health Correspondence Course for Women was started in July and aimed to provide women with health information in their own homes.
The OPD Health Education Programme was expanded to include not only slide shows but video shows as well. Other programmes like health talks and broadcasting in housing estates were continued.
A total of 1 800 000 copies of poster, pamphlet and stickers were issued out to the public and there were 5 365 occasions of audio-visual materials loan-out to voluntary agencies and schools.
Close liaison was maintained with the media, medical professionals and other Government departments. The unit participated in innumerable television and radio programmes and press interviews in addition to providing advice and counselling to voluntary agencies and bodies for their health education activities.
Dental Service
The School Dental Care Service, introduced since 1980, provides regular dental examinations, simple dental treatment and oral health education to primary school children. The response from parents to this type of preventive dentistry was very good. At the end of the seventh year of operation, the number of participants from Primary I to V school children has reached some 298 692. The participation rate has increased to about 67% as compared with 29% in the first year. To enable the scheme to cover eventually all the primary school children, four more school dental clinics have been planned in addition to the existing four in operation,
The Government Dental Service provides dental care for all monthly paid civil servants, pensioners and their dependents as well as simple dental treatment for the inmates of penal institutions and specialist treatment for patients in Government hospitals. Emergency treatment is also provided to the public in a number of district dental clinics.
Port Health Service
The Port Health Service is the control authority to prevent the introduction of quarantinable diseases into the Territory via air, land, rail or sea and enforce by carrying out measures stipulated under the Quarantine and Prevention of Disease Ordinance and the International Health Regulations.
The service provides facilities for vaccination and the issuing of international vaccination certificates. It also inspects and supervises the eradication of rats from ships on international voyages. The service provides medical assistance to ships in the harbour, transmits medical advice to ships at sea, operates a 24-hour health clearance service for all incoming vessels, and grants radio pratique to ships.
The health staff also maintain close surveillance on the food catering service to international airlines to ensure that food and water supplied by the flight kitchen service is clean and safe.
Epidemiological information is exchanged regularly with the World Health Organisation in Geneva and its Western Pacific Regional Office in Manila and with neighbouring countries.
School Medical Service
The School Medical Service Scheme is operated by an independent statutory School Medical Service Board. The scheme offers an economic form of medical treatment service to all school children in Primary I to Form III. Participation is voluntary and, for a token fee of $10 a year, a participant can receive free medical attention from a general medical practitioner of the school's choice. The Government contributes $65 a year for each pupil enrolled and also bears the administrative cost of operating the Scheme. The general response to the Scheme is favourable and about 400 general medical practitioners are enlisted in the Scheme.
Over 369 000 school children from 887 schools participated in the Scheme as at 31 March 1987, representing a coverage of about 46% of the total eligible school population.
The School Health Service, a Government responsibility, deals with the environmental health and sanitation of school premises and the control of communicable diseases. School health officers, health visitors and health inspectors make frequent inspections of schools, and advise on matters concerning the health of the children and organise special health educational activities and immunization campaigns.
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