2.
-
4
of hygiene with an absence of sanitary structures and pipe- borne water supply formed a dangerous combination.
Tuberculosis still remained the chief single killing disease, being responsible for 5,751 deaths in 1940, as compared with 4,443 in 1939. In order better to educate public opinion on the cause and prevention of the disease, the Hong Kong Anti- Tuberculosis Association was formed with the Director of Medical Services as its President and the Senior Chinese Member of Legislative Council as its Chairman of Council and Executive Committee. Anti-spitting legislation was introduced soon after the Association came into being.
The staff of the social hygiene branch of the Medical Department was augmented during the year by a Chinese lady medical officer, four health nurses and three health visitors, and an additional clinic for women was established in a new Health Centre in Kowloon which was constructed out of an abandoned school. The high incidence of venereal diseases in the members of the Crown Forces had given Government and the Naval and Military Authorities serious concern, and it was the hope of Government that the additional personnel to combat the diseases in the prostitute class would bring about a reduction.
5. Nutrition.
Following upon the tightening and extension of the blockade of China ports by the Japanese and the increasing difficulty and cost of importing foodstuffs into the Colony, a noticeable deterioration occurred in the standard of nutrition of the masses. This was manifested by the appearance in "epidemic" form of pellagra for the first time in the history of the Colony. There were 442 deaths among the 953 cases recorded.
At the same time, deaths from beri-beri rose from 3,189 in 1939 to 7,229 in 1940.
Loss of efficiency and invalidism was, of course, to be expected and the hospitals which had already been congested became seriously overcrowded.
The Nutrition Research Committee continued to investigate means of arriving at a more satisfactory and a more easily obtainable diet and was responsible for a considerable amount of propaganda. A film entitled "Enough to Eat" was obtained from England and shown to large audiences. Steps are being taken by the Medical Department to make a film locally owing to the difference in customs, availability of foodstuffs, and so on. Government found it necessary to put a curb on profiteering of the rice staple by fixing maximum wholesale and retail prices at the end of 1940 and continued to establish maximum prices for many other foods. In many cases, maxima became standard prices.
Government, also, took steps to investigate the firewood market which had an appreciable effect on the cost of living, preparatory to arranging price control and importation on behalf of Government. In order to relieve the situation, in some measure, at any rate, Government granted in September,