M 30.
Great and free exchange of population with China and the attractions offered by Hong Kong, it is most probable that the rate per mille population here is not less than that in the neighbouring province of Kwangtung. In Japan the rate is 0.33 per mille, Formosa 2.5 per mille, in Amoy 2 per mille, in French Indo-China 0.5 per mille, in Malaya 1 per mille, and in India 1 per mille. In Kwangtung and Hong Kong, it would be no over-estimate to state that it is 0.5 per mille. Estimating at this rate, the number of lepers in the Colony and New Territory would be at least 400. According to the Census, 1/3rd of the population were born in the Colony. It would therefore appear that there may be 136 lepers for which the Colony is responsible.
98. Since 1910, there has been no leper asylum or leper settlement in either the Colony or the New Territories.
99. Lepers who are not British subjects are prohibited from entering the Colony, and any such who find entrance may be deported. Lepers of Chinese nationality are sent to Canton, and those who are British subjects may receive treatment at the out-patient sections of the Government Civil Hospital or at the Kowloon Hospital.
100. At Shek Lung in Kwangtung, the Roman Catholic Mission maintains a leper asylum where are accommodated some 700 lepers, among whom are 70 who stated that they came from Hong Kong. In the 1931 estimates, provision was made for a subsidy to this Mission.
Notifiable Infectious Diseases.
101. The numbers of cases of infectious disease notified during the year and those notified in 1930 were:-
1931 1930 Bubonic Plague 0 0 Cholera 0 0 Smallpox 15 270 Diphtheria 231 95 Scarlet Fever 3 3 Enteric 214 221 Para-typhoid 3 3 Relapsing Fever 0 0 Cerebro-spinal Fever 25 20 Typhus 0 1 Yellow Fever 0 0 Puerperal Fever 19 15 Rabies (human) 0 0 Rabies (animal) 1 2