ABBREVIATED ANNUAL MEDICAL REPORT FOR HONG KONG, 1940.
GENERAL HEALTH CONSIDERATIONS,
1. The health and sanitary conditions in Hong Kong during 1940 continued to be influenced by the presence of several hundred thousand refugees from war areas in China, with resulting overcrowding, high rentals, increased cost of food and fuel and noticeable under-nutrition amongst a large proportion of the population.
2. Government and certain large employers of labour increased wages for their lowest paid employees, but not in proportion to the increase in the general cost of living.
GENERAL DISEASES,
3. Shortage of food of satisfactory quantity and quality was reflected in the appearance in epidemic form for the first time in the history of the Colony of a fatal form of pellagra (953 cases, 442 deaths). Deaths from beri beri, including the infantile type, rose from 3,189 in 1939 to 7,229 in 1940. Tuberculosis also took a higher foll with 5,751 deaths during the year under review as compared with 4,443 in 1939. These figures are all the more significant in view of the fact that the population at risk was lower at the end of 1940 than at the beginning of the year.
COMMUNICABLE DISEASES.
4. Communicable diseases are dealt with under "Hygiene and Sanitation". The cholera outbreak started late, but was attended by a high case mortality (66.2 per centum) and left behind an under-nourished community with a high "carrier" rate amounting to over 20 per centum in certain congested districts. This combination, associated with a sadly defective system of nightsoil collection from 65,000 tenement floors, is likely to be followed by very serious consequences
in 1941.
5. Smallpox was controlled to some extent by mass vaccination, over 24 million vaccinations being performed during the year. In relation to this, it should be remembered that British river steamers alone brought to the Colony over one million passengers during 1940, all of whom were vaccinated before landing if they had not been so protected during the preceding three years.
6. Typhoid and dysentery continued to exact a heavy toll on human life and may be expected to do so in future until the primitive methods of town conservancy are finally eliminated, and the cost of food and fuel for the masses is more in keeping with their earnings.
VITAL STATISTICS.
7. At midyear 1940 the population estimated on the normal intercensal increase numbered 1,071,893. To this must be added a further figure of about 750,000 representing the refugee factor.
8. Some 45,064 births were registered as compared with 46,675 in 1939 giving an uncorrected birth-rate of 41.9. The number of registered deaths was 61,010, a surplus of 12,727 over the corresponding figure for 1939. On the same basis, the uncorrected death-rate was 56.9. Amongst the deaths, 14,683 occurred in children under one year of age, resulting in an infant mortality rate of 327. The main causes of deaths are appended, together with the lists of diseases encountered amongst patients at the Government hospitals and Chinese hospitals under Government supervision.
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