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Tuesday, April 17, 1973
POOR RESPONSE TO ANTI-MEASLES CAMPAIGN
Only 555 Doses Administered During First Week
During the first week of the 1973 anti-measles campaign, 555 doses
of the vaccine were administered, according to figures released today by the
Medical and Health Department.
The campaign began on April 2 and will continue until May 31.
Of the total, 115 children were immunised on the Island, 326 in
Kowloon, and 114 in the New Territories.
"The results are poor," a spokesman for the Medical and Health
Department said.
He recalled that 25 fixed centres had been set up in resettlement
estates, health offices, government clinics and hospitals, in addition to
the 34 maternal and child health centres offering measles vaccine for use
by children between six months and five years.
The spokesman said in the New Territories, in addition to fixed
centres in the town areas, mobile teams were visiting villages, and the
department's two floating dispensaries were carrying the vaccine to outlying
islands.
He reminded parents that although Hong Kong has not had a measles
epidemic since the last one in 1966 and 1967, when a total of 1,045 children
died, there was no room for complacency."
"Measles immunisation by vaccine was introduced in Hong Kong in 1968,
and soon resulted in the reduction of the incidence of the disease, and the
near elimination of deaths," the spokesman said.
"If there is no increase in the immunisation rate as a result of this
year's campaign, further epidemics of measles in Hong Kong can be expected."
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