M 19
Negotiations have been proceeding between the Governments of Hong Kong and the Federated Malay States for the transfer to this Colony of an experienced Malariologist and there is every reason to hope that the transfer will be effected early in the coming year.
Judging from the hospital admissions this disease was slightly more prevalent than last year. The cases admitted to the Government Hospitals for the last five years were as follows:-
1925 1,142 1926 970 1927 670 1928 485 1929 653Of the 653 cases admitted during the year 520 were benign tertian, 94 sub-tertian, 5 quartan. There were besides 32 cases of cachexia and 2 cases of blackwater.
The incidence among the police in the New Territories for the same period was:
1925 1,205 1926 877 1927 428 1928 278 1929 265Many of the Police Stations are screened and every man is provided with a mosquito curtain. Prophylactic Quinine is issued and the living rooms are regularly sprayed with an insecticide to repel mosquitoes and to kill those that may be present.
The total number of deaths attributed to Malaria was 420 or 2.3 per cent of the whole: the death rate per mille population was 0.40 as compared with 0.30 for 1928. The lowness of the rate is of course due to the fact that the majority of the population being outside the zone of the Malaria carrying anophelines are not subject to risks of attack. A number of localities outside the town are reputed to be malarious but at present there are no figures to allow an estimate to be made of amount.
Dengue.-Dengue is endemic in Hong Kong and from time to time reaches epidemic form. There was nothing in the way of an epidemic in 1929.