Contact Examination,
162. The examination of contacts is carried out in such a fashion us to occasion the least inconvenience to the individual and the minimum of work for the clinical staff. Contacts are arbitrarily divided into two groups. Those under 8 years of age are tuberculin tested and the positive reactors are then X-rayed. Those above 8 years of age are X-rayed forthwith without having first to attend the clinic.
163. The results of contact examination are shown below:
Tubercullo text-
{
Negative Pusitive
1,747
1853
1,536
114
Active tuberculosis ..
152
201
Inductive
bw
36
Suspicious
an
Free of
1,546
6.82%
Clinical findings of contacts
showing positive Mantoux
Percentage of contacts found to have active
Luberculosis
showed that nearly 95% of the city's population of 16 years and over were tuberculin positive and it was considered not worth- while to launch a mass campaign merely to discover and protect 5% of the population. It was felt that the advantage which would accrue would be too small to justify the expense and effort involved. In consequence attention has been concentrated on the population below the age of 15 and this population was divided, for administrative purposes, into 3 groups, namely, school children, pre-school children and the new born.
165. A vaccination team was integrated into the School Health Service and vaccination was offered to all school children on a voluntary basis. Schools were visited systematically and by the middle of the year the school population as a whole had been dealt with. Thereafter arrangements were made for continuing visits to schools to test and vaccinate all new entrants. During the year a total of 719 schools were visited and the work carried out was as follows:
Activa (uberculosis
HE1
Results of clinical
examination following
Inactive Suspicious
104
41
12
516
Free of
0,042
5,260
4.237
11.524
Percentage of contacts found to bave active
tuberculosis
Grand total of contacts examined
B.C.G. Inoculations.
4.175% 9,081
164. B.C.G. vaccination, which was commenced in April 1952 as an organized campaign with technical and material assistance from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund and the World Health Organization, continued as a routine activity throughout the year. Mass inoculation of the general population was not attempted in view of experience in the early stages of the campaign when the results of the tuberculin tests
Tuberculia Text
Completed Test
Vaccinated
Starting Test
Positive
34,978
27,418
10,137
9,965
166. Greater difficulties were experienced in dealing with pre-school children. Those attending Infant Welfare Centres presented no difficulty but they constituted only a small pro- portion of the pre-school children in the city. In consequence arrangements were made for systematic domiliciary visits to be made. This was done in conjunction with the house cleansing squad operated by the Urban Services Department and, by the end of the year, the whole of Hong Kong Island, including Stanley, Aberdeen and other outlying districts had been dealt with. The result achieved from this effort was disappointing but nevertheless it is intended to continue these domiliciary visits in Kowloon.
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