IN THIS FIGHT AGAINST CHOLERA Canon

THE

PHOTO

BACKROOM

BOYS

ARE IN

IN A FRONTLINE BATTLE

THE moment, an anti-cholera inoculator gives you a jab in the arm, 8,000 million cholera germs enter your body-but don't panic for they are all dead!

Those who free them alive are the backroom boys at the Government Institute of Pathology in Saivingpun and Caine Lane where they are breeding 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 living cholera organisms a day just for the final killing

In the Colony-wide cam-j frontline fighters, working poign against

NEWS

1 an army of ville cholera Germa,

The laboratory tochnletans hove to collect these armles of liye #erms without contamina- tloul

This is the most critical mo-

In rooms which are some- men wrzen one touch of the Times kept airtight and In concentrated germs would mean which sometimes helther fans hopeless infection or "a kiss of cor air-conditioning is allowed death."

for four of spreading or in- It is then that the fans aro- hibiting the germs, these un- turned off and noor and windows known heroes work in white kept shut lest germs should get gowns.

Inte workers' lungs through

They pamper live cholera respiration, germs, feed them with vitamins, It then that the air-con- proteins, and other nutritibus ditioning is said to be switched ingredients, Jet them multiply off for fear that the genns and Anally kill them off,

would nol thrive or

They divide themselves in three shifts, working either on the preparation of culture media or cultivation of germs them- Kulves.

The culture medium they use is agar agar (a gelatinous transparent substance from cer- 1ain senweeds containing much carbohydrate and a little

pro

tein) enriched with vitaming, amino ackls and other nutri Tous elements.

There Arz two types of chefern germs they breed In culture: Inaba and Okawa, which are first tested for their

rality and purity.

ne

Gin bottles

clure requires large quanti

The process of vaccine-manu-

of fin bottles in enriched "ugar agur is placed to a depth of two inches.

The tester types of cholera norms are then invrulated onto the bottled agar agar.

some of

-By DAVID LAN

then muy even perish in the wrong temperature.

After the delicate work of lurvesting, the crop of germs is

diluted,

und then klied off by heating in a water bath ai BJ C.

Diluted

The material so obtained is which known 205 U concentrated vaccine. It is then tested for, its sterility And safely. To keep the dend germs from going bad, the correct amount of udded as phenol is

A preser- vative,

After passing all the neces

organisons per c.c.--the dose for acount of 8,000 million killed

an average aduft.

After a period of 12 to 15 hours' Incubation, the reeded

cholera, round-the-clock, turning out gar agar forms a milky layer sary tests, it is then diluted to

these backroom boys are the anti-cholera vaccino.

on top which in actual fact

Photographs by Benson Lo and Frank Fischbeck

Then comes the process of in- bottling-the vaccine is serted without contamination into handy small containers which undergo further sterility lests.

Shipments

The bottles containing the standardised density of antigens (killed cholera germs) are then ready for distribution and in- sculation purposes,

In the current campaign, vaccine production at the Gov- eraient laboratories was step- ped up to such an extent within a few days that shipments of agar agar were flown in from Australio,

As a result of the effort of these behind-the-scene workers, the output of Hongkong's own vaccine has risen at a fast pace from the 70,000 c.c. a day short- ly after August 12, Ave days before the first two deaths from cholera were reported. to the peak of 125.000 e.c; a day.

Government has achieved this result by mobilising all avail- able staff on the work and closing down certain branches of the Institute of Pathology in order to boost vaccine produc- tien.

Into the arm it goes. It pricked but this little

girl didn't mind a bit.

A senior medical technologist opening the door of an autoclave — a machine for sterilising

cultured media and glassware 'used in the preparation of anti-cholera vaccine.

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A technologist removes the growth from the cultured media in gin bottles. This requires great caution for cholera germs are small enough to gather on a pinpoint and enter human lungs through inhalation.

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Another" : "technologist' in · sen kera transferring prepared anti-chofera vaccine from a reservoir into suitable smaller com- tainers for further tests.

1 Floors.

& Quick.

ACROSS

Liable for.

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11 Singer.

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14 Weapon.

36 Trimmed.

17 Jiddle.

10 Gipяy?

30 Legal actionst

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DOWN

1 Second childhood.

2 Water, bearert.

3 Heart.

4 Sort of lighting.

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