L 24
Plague.
The incidence of Plague during 1914 was severe, 2,146 cases being reported (as against 408 cases in 1913 and 1,847 cases in 1912).
The Medical Officer of Health, in the Report for 1912, attributed the severe epidemic of that year to the serious overcrowding which had resulted from the influx of Chinese from the neighbouring provinces and which is believed to have led to a large increase in the rat population of the inhabited districts. The fact that the epidemic of 1912 was followed by a year in which the Plague incidence was light is in accordance with past experience in regard to the alternation of epidemic with non-epidemic years, the most probable explanation of which is that a large proportion of the remaining rats are immune. The further rush of Chinese to the Colony during the latter part of 1913 brought about the same conditions in 1914 as had prevailed in 1912 with similar consequences to the health of the Colony. The exodus of Chinese from the Colony following the outbreak of the European war did not occur until the epidemic of Plague was at an end, for there were only 16 cases in the City during August and 8 in September, while in Kowloon the figures for the same two months were 2 and 1 respectively.
The measures upon which the Colony relies for the prevention of Plague consist in (1) the exclusion of rats from all dwellings by means of concreted ground surfaces, the protection of all drain openings and ventilating openings by iron gratings and the prohibition of ceilings, and hollow walls in new buildings and in those existing buildings from which they have been removed by order; (2) the collection and bacteriological examination of all dead rats--facilities for their collection in the native quarters are provided in the shape of small covered bins attached to lamp posts, telephone posts, electric light standards, etc. These bins contain a carbolic acid disinfectant and the inhabitants are invited to at once put into them all rats found or killed by them. There are 650 of these bins distributed throughout the City and its suburbs, and each of them is visited twice daily by rat collectors who take all rats found in them to the Government Bacteriologist. Each rat is labelled with the number of the bin from which it is taken, and if subsequently found to be plague-infected, a special survey is at once made of the block of houses in the immediate vicinity of such bin, all rat-holes and rat-runs are filled up with broken glass and cement, defective drains and gratings dealt with, and rat-poison freely distributed to the occupants, while the occurrence of several plague-infected rats in one locality is a signal for a special house-to-house survey and cleansing of that district. The disinfectant in the rat bins is renewed not less than once a week; (3) the destruction of rats by poison, traps and birdlime boards; (4) the encouragement of the community to keep cats; (5) the systematic cleansing and washing out of all native dwellings at least once in three months with a flea-killing mixture-kerosine emulsion; (6) an efficient daily scavenging of all streets and lanes and the removal of refuse daily from all houses, coupled with the provision of covered metal dust-bins.