17
16
61. The decrease in the number of deaths due to violence is of interest. In view of the fact that there are approximately 32 motor cars per mile of road in the Cology and also taking into consideration the disturbed state across the border with the large influx of refugees, both good and bad characters, this figure of 620 is astonishing and is the lowest recorded since the war.
62. Annexure F. shows the number of cases of notifiable disease with the deaths at all ages for the years 1946 to 1949, also the age groups of diseases notified for 1949 and the notifica- tions, deaths and deaths per 100 notifications for cerebro-spinal meningitis, measles, diphtheria, enteric fever and smallpox since 1928.
(a) Rabies.
63. The outstanding feature of the notifiable diseases was the outbreak of rabies. The first human case occurred in January but the dog was not traced. This was followed by a second human case in April and two further cases in July, In the meantime by the end of June nine animal cases had been proved, five of them occurring in May. At this time 329 people had already received injections or were in the course of having them. In August four human cases were reported followed by four more in September, two in October and five in November. One case only occurred in December and two cases in the first quarter of 1950, but hopes that the disease was dying out were dispelled subsequently by fresh cases occurring. Altogether during 1949 there were 20 human cases and 40 animal cases, the majority of them occurring in the neighbourhood of Kowloon City. 5,335 people received a course of injections during the year.
64. In January 1950 the Dogs and Cats Ordinance became law making the inoculation of dogs, inter alia, compulsory.
65. Every effort was made particularly during the summer and autumn to impress upon the public the importance of controlling dogs and of the necessity for the shooting and capture of stray dogs. As the number of deaths for both animals and humans rose the public gradually became conscious of the urgency of co-operating and by the autumn there was a considerable improvement, but with the decrease in the deaths notified at the end of the year a general faxness in the control of dogs again became apparent and further efforts will un- doubtedly be needed in 1950 before the disease is under control.
(b) Tuberculosis,
66. Once again tuberculosis (all forms) provided the second largest number of deaths for any single disease for all ages and was the chief cause of death among adults. A report on the tuberculosis service is given in Annexure C.
(c) Pneumonia (all forms).
67. Pneumonia again claims the greatest number of deaths. The figure 4,391 represents a very considerable increase from the 1948 figure of 3,157. 1,786 of these deaths occurred in children under one year.
(d) Enteritis.
68. This disease has shown a steady increase as a cause of death since 1947 and of the 2,268 deaths from it in 1949, 1,273 were in children under 1 year,
(e) Malignant Diseases.
69.
Table 10 shows the number of deaths and the death rate per million from malignant diseases as a whole for the years 1946 to 1949,
TABLE 10.
Malignant Diseases for the years 1946-1949.
Number of Deaths
Death rate
Year
Estimated Population
per million
M.
F.
T.
M.
F.
T.
1946
1,500,000 --1,600,000
114
163 277 73.0 105.2 178,7
1947
1948
1,750,000
1,800,000
1949
1,857,000
124 178
169 228
260 244
304 72 101.7 173.7
$97 99.9 126.7 220.6
513 144.9 131.4 276.3
70. Table 11 shows the number of deaths and the death rate per thousand total deaths from malignant diseases accord- ing to site and sex for the year 1949. Owing to the change in nomenclature in 1949 to conform to the new international statistical classification, it is not possible to compare these. figures with those given for previous years.