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Friday, February 27, 1976
It was also suggested that a new style chest clinic should in
future be designed as part of a polyclinic and be associated with beds
for respiratory diseases in a hospital.
This meant that the Service should be re-designed to take up
the entire field of respiratory medicine instead of restricting itself
to pulmonary tuberculosis only, Dr. Choa explained.
Turning to the work and achievement of the Health Service during
the past year, Dr. Choa said Government clinics were able to vaccinate almost 100 per cent of all new born babies, which was probably the highest
BCG coverage at birth in the world.
The number of deaths from tuberculosis continued to decline, from 974 in 1974 to 646 last year, and the crude death rate from 22.9 to 14.8
per 100,000 population, he said.
In fact, there has been a 50 per cent fall in death rate in the
last three years, he added.
Dr. Choa commended the association for its outstanding contribution
to the treatment and control of tuberculosis.
"We have not come to the end of the road but we have travelled a
long way to reach yet another important milestone," he said.
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