allocated in Queen Mary Hospital to the Senior Hygiene Officer for acute cases. Full use was made of these beds during the
year.
95. During the year not inconsiderable advance was made in public education on venereal disease. Two films, one for male audiences and one for female audiences, were made depart- mentally for showing to selected public audiences. In addition, a technical educational film on the performance of the VDRL test was made for use in staff training. Enamelled posters setting forth the symptoms of venereal disease and the times and places at which free clinics are held have been posted in all public lavatories, and a large number of handbills und pamphlets have been distributed. Talks on venereal disease prevention have been recorded in various Chinese dialects and are replayed in waiting rooms and used in conjunction with the films. A special talk is broadcast by the loud hailer vans while touring in connexion with other campaigns. Soon after the introduction of these health education measures there was a marked increase in attendances at all elinica.
96. The number of new cases dealt with was 37,392 of which 14,874 were female. The figures for the previous year were 23,565 and 8,877 respectively. Total attendances at the clinics during the year were 213,091 and 741 female patients were admitted to hospital. This latter figure constitutes a con- siderable drop from the previous year which is accounted for by the restriction of admissions necessitated by structural repairs undertaken in the hospital.
97. Contact tracing was undertaken by four Social Hygiene Visitors. Persons diagnosed to be suffering from venereal disease are requested to supply confidential information regard- ing the source of infection and the person causing the infection may then be legally forced to submit to examination. In prac- tice it has not been found necessary to employ legal sanction to enforce attendance as the majority of suspected sources have
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proved co-operative and willing to accept the advice of the Social Hygiene Visitors. The number of contact notifications received was 2,816 and the Social Hygiene Visitors made a total of 2,566 visita. Of these visits 577 were made to prostitutes who had defaulted from clinic attendance. Successful return was achieved in 23.9% of cases but in 49% the persons concerned could not be located.
98. During the year the Kaho test was replaced by the VDRL test which is carried out qualitatively on all specimens received and quantitatively when necessary. This test is more sensitive than the Kahn test and, in consequence, rather more false positive results are obtained. When this is suspected a check test is made using the standard Kahn procedure.
99. A free service, which is made good use of by private midwives, is the performance of blood tests on their patients during the ante-natal period. During 1953 a total of 5,225 patients were referred by midwives for testing and of these, 877 showed a positive test, namely 7.2%.
100. Penicillin treatment of primary and secondary syphilis was so successful clinically that it was in most instances impossible to persuade the patient to return for any lengthy period for post treatment observation and it was not possible to estimate the incidence of relapac. Many cases of cardio- vascular syphilis, optic atrophy and tabes dorsalis are still, unfortunately, encountered at the clinics at a stage of the disease when even penicillin can be little more than a palliative.
101. An adequate cure rate for acute gonorrhea has been maintained throughout the year with one injection of procaine penicillin. In some instances there was a suspicion that peni- cillin resistent strains of gonococci were developing and in such cases cultures were made and the organism tested for sensitivity to the different anti-biotics. No cases of penicillin resistance bas so far been found.
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