14
(vi) Port Health Work and Administration.
Full responsibility for port health services was undertaken by the Health Division of the department during 1948.
The quarantine anchorage of Stone Cutters Island was in use throughout the year, although very large ocean-going liners and tank vessels were examined in Kowloon Bay to meet the convenience of shippers.
In cooperation with the chief junk inspector, all junks and launches plying between Hong Kong and coastal ports were medically inspected also. Some 7,820 vessela carrying 299,408 passengers and 306,212 members of the crew were medical examined. Fifty of these vessels had to be placed in quarantine owing to the existence of board of dangerous infectious disease or for contravention of the Quarantine Regulations.
The ill-fated $8: "Sai On" carried a case of cholera in March and of smallpox in August, from Canton.
The 8.8. 'Fort Constantine" landed a case of cholera in June, the S.S. "Tjitjulanka" a case of smallpox from Shanghai in September and the S.S. "Wing- sang" three cases of smallpox in December.
Ninety-one ships with a tonnage of 136.489 and a gross cubic capacity of 16,493,206 cubic feet were fumigated with sulphur di-oxide gas and 1,359 dead rats were found, none plague-infected. It is hoped to replace the sulphur by the cyanide method in 1947, the former being out-of-date.
Fifty-one vessels were lasued with deratisation certificates,
The income from this service totalled $48,124.81.
Singapore, Rangoon, Shanghai, Canton, Macao and several other ports declared Hong Kong an infected port and required that passengers by sea, air and land from Hong Kong should be able to produce valid certificates of vaccination and inoculation.
Three main centres were established and 142,585 vaccinations against amall- pox, 146,052 cholera inoculations, 2.797 inoculations against plague, 1,479 against typhus and 4,071 against the enteric group were carried out.
A fee of 50 cents was charged for all vertificates issued during the last seven months of the year, resulting in a revenue of approximately $73,000.
Emigration remained in abeyance until the 15th of May when a ship left for Singapore and Calcutta. Twenty-one emigrant shipa în all proceeded south carrying 13,464 emigrants and 2,810 members of the crew. Nineteen would-be emigrants had to be rejected on health grounds.
Bills of Health were issued to 1.216 merchant and fifty-nine to naval vessels.
One prosecution was effected against a vessel for contravening Quarantine Regulations and a fine of $150.00 was imposed,
Up to the 15th of September, 1946, quarantine work at the air port had been performed by RA.F. personnel, and from that date the port health authorities assumed control. In the last three and a half months of the year, 332 aircraft were inspected, carrying 4,594 passengers and 1,495 crew.
Kai Tak Airfeld cannot yet claim to be described as a "sanitary aerodrome" within the meaning of the International Sanitary and Aerial Conventions. It lacke satisfactory medical and sanitary facilities and the surrounding area has not been brought up to the required standard.
In order to reduce the danger of importation of cases of smallpox and cholera by train, medical inspection of all passengers was carried out in the latter half of the year. Some, 440,824 persons were scen of whom 98,738 were vaccinated and 13,985 were inoculated against cholera.
V. TRAINING OF PERSONNEL.
In October, 1946, the Hong Kong University reopened for the preliminary scientific training of medical students.
16
Twenty-two war-time graduates from various medical colleges in China were accommodated at Queen Mary, Kowloon and Tsan Yuk Maternity Hospitals with the object of acquiring further clinical training under the guidance of specialists to medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology.
Probationer nurses and hospital dressers received training from the sister tutors in government and government assisted hospitals. Fourteen took the Preliminary Examination and eighteen the Final Examination for the Hong Kong Nurses Board Certificate. This certificate has been sccepted by the Royal College of Nursing on a basis of reciprocity with the United Kingdom since 1939.
Probationer midwives continued to be trained at Kowloon, Tsan Yuk, Tang Wah, Tung Wah Eastern, Kwong Wah and Young Wo Hospitals. The maternity wards at Queen Mary Hospital formed part of the temporary Royal Naval Hospital during the year and, consequently, were not available. The maternity block at the Nathersole Hospital was not opened for lying-in patients until mid-October.
The Central Midwives Board of Great Britain accorded a most valuable con- cession to the Colony during the year by allowing Hong Kong graduates with certificates of the Midwives Board to take the second examination of the Central Midwives Board for registration as midwives in the United Kingdom after a further three months course of instruction in England. This places the Hong Kong Midwives Certificate on the same level as that of the Dominion of New Zealand.
With twenty students, the school of pharmacy recommenced its course of training in cooperation with the Education Department, Two pharmacists were registered during the year.
Some nineteen health inspectors set for the certificate of the Royal Sanitary Institute of Great Britain and sixteen were successful
Practical training in the various aspects of preventive medicine was given to the health inspectorate who took an active part in the work of the Health Division of the department. To quote a report by Dr. G. Graham-Cumming, acting senior health officer:-
"For the purpose of applying the provisions of the various Ordinances governing the health of the Colony, the urban district, which includes the island of Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Kowloon, is divided into five areas. There are three areas in Hong Kong and two in Kowloon and New Kowloon. Each area is split up into a number of health districts. Altogether, there are forty-three health districts of which twenty-five are situated in Hong Kong and the remaining eighteen in Kowloon and New Kowloon. A health offler has control of the health activities in each area and there is a health inspector in charge of each bealth district, The health officer supervises and directs the work of the health inspectors and other staff employed in his area.
Each health district contains from 1,800 to 1,900 domestic floors. The average number of inhabitants per health district is approximately 21,500. This figure, however, does not include the many thousands of destitute Chinese refugees who have taken up abode amid the ruins of devastated buildings, a situation which has presented a major problem to the health authorities.
The total number of domestic floors in the urban district is approximately 75,000. This figure, compared with that for the year 1938 (other records being lost), when there were approximately 85.000 floors, indicates the damaged sustained to property during the years of hostilities.
House-to-house cleansing and inspection are part of a health inspector's daily routine on all working days, Wednesdays excepted. Floors are cleansed by the inmates under the supervision of the health staff. For this purpose, tanks containing kerosene emulsion solution are provided for cleaning purposes generally and for complete immersion of smaller articles of furniture, e.g.. bed-boards.
Since the 1st of May, 1946, the date on which the Civil Government resumed its functions, 20,532 nuisances have been dealt with. During the whole year of 1946, the number of floors cleansed totalled 178,350. The whole of the urban district was cleansed, therefore, on three occasions.
In addition to district duties, other health inspectors are employed on conservancy, refuse removal and disposal, hawkers' control, meat and food inspection, cemeteries, schools, rodent control, part health and clearance of war-devastated buildings.