- 5
Friday, February 27, 1976
INCIDENCE OF TUBERCULOSIS CONTINUES TO DECLINE
Two overseas experts on chest diseases have recommended "major
changes" in the Government Chest Service, necessitated by the continual
decline in the incidence of tuberculosis in Hong Kong.
This was disclosed by the Director of Medical and Health Services,
Dr. Gerald Choa, in his address to the Hong Kong Anti-TB & Thoracic Diseases
Association this evening.
Dr. Choa, who is president of the association, told the annual
general meeting that he had appointed a Working Party to consider a report
by the two consultants from the United Kingdom, Prof. J.G. Scadding and
Dr. Wallace Fox, who visited Hong Kong last year to review the situation
concerning tuberculosis.
Both experts were of the opinion that the current decline in new
cases of tuberculosis would continue and the policy of reliance on out-
patient chemotherapy should be pursued, he said.
They advocated that the existing chest clinics should continue to
deal with out-patient treatment of tuberculosis, but they should extend their
activities further into other fields of respiratory diseases.
And because of the expected decline, a number of beds for the
treatment of tuberculosis should be used for non-TB chest conditions and
also heart diseases.
In this connection, Dr. Choa said his view was that the Ruttonjee
Sanatorium should remain as the main centre for the treatment of all forms
of tuberculosis while the Granthan Hospital, in which there is already an
open-heart surgery unit, should further develop in this particular specialty.
/It was