M 27
In previous campaigns great difficulty had always been experienced in obtaining permission to vaccinate young children, and this year a special effort was made in this direction. The fact that 86 per cent of the deaths were those of children under 5 years shows the unvaccinated state of the child population.
From the above it will be seen that the St. John's Ambulance Brigade and the Chinese Hospitals and Dispensaries rendered most valuable assistance in the attempt to control the small-pox epidemic by vaccination alone. During 1929 and 1930 568,498 vaccinations were performed, a total equalling half the population. The constant movement of population into and out of the Colony (some 5,000 per diem) however renders it impossible to maintain a community so immune as to prevent disease spreading when cases are allowed to run their courses in tenement houses and there is no efficient control over the numerous free agents which pass into and out of the premises daily.
In September a Select Committee of the Sanitary Board was appointed to "examine into the history of small-pox in the Colony in recent years and the machinery for its prevention and mitigation and to report to the Board, and to suggest a reply to His Excellency's communication regarding the dumping of the bodies of those dead of small-pox.
In its Report dated 28th November, 1930, the Committee made the following recommendations :—
1. The trial of house treatment of Small-pox, having failed in its object through non-compliance with the conditions laid down, the rescission of the Resolution of 1918 is advocated.
2. The dumping rate having risen steadily since 1918 steps should be taken to establish a more thorough propaganda system and if necessary more depôts for the receipt of bodies. The services of such Institutions as the Dispensaries Committees, the Chinese Hospitals and other Representative Bodies might be utilized for the purpose of such propaganda system.
Plague. -No case of human plague or rat plague was reported during 1930.
Plague has practically disappeared from Hong Kong and the same may be said of most towns in South China. The disappearance in Hong Kong may be and probably is due in some degree to the sanitary measures which have been and are being taken but this cannot be the case in many of the Chinese towns where the conditions are as they have always been. The fact is that the cause of the rise and fall in plague figures has not yet been ...
M 27
In previous campaigns great difficulty had always been experienced in obtaining permission to vaccinate young children, and this year a special effort was made in this direction. The fact that 86 per cent of the deaths were those of children under 5 years shows the unvaccinated state of the child population.
From the above it will be seen that the St. John's Ambulance Brigade and the Chinese Hospitals and Dispensaries rendered most valuable assistance in the attempt to control the small-pox epidemic by vaccination alone. During 1929 and 1930 568,498 vaccinations were performed, a total equalling half the population. The constant movement of population into and out of the Colony (some 5,000 per diem) however renders it impossible to maintain a community so immune as to prevent disease spreading when cases are allowed to run their courses in tenement houses and there is no efficient control over the numerous free agents which pass into and out of the premises daily.
In September a Select Committee of the Sanitary Board was appointed to "examine into the history of small-pox in the Colony in recent years and the machinery for its prevention and mitigation and to report to the Board, and to suggest a reply to His Excellency's communication regarding the dumping of the bodies of those dead of small-pox.
In its Report dated 28th November, 1930, the Committee made the following recommendations :—
1. The trial of house treatment of Small-pox, having failed in its object through non-compliance with the conditions laid down, the rescission of the Resolution of 1918 is advocated.
2. The dumping rate having risen steadily since 1918 steps should be taken to establish a more thorough propaganda system and if necessary more depôts for the receipt of bodies. The services of such Institu- tions as the Dispensaries Committees, the Chinese Hospitals and other Representative Bodies might be utilized for the purpose of such propaganda system.
Plague. -No case of human plague or rat plague was report- ed during 1930.
Plague has practically disappeared from Hong Kong and the same may be said of most towns in South China. The disappear- ance in Hong Kong may be and probably is due in some degree to the sanitary measures which have been and are being taken but this cannot be the case in many of the Chinese towns where the conditions are as they have always been. The fact is that the cause of the rise and fall in plague figures has not yet been
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