M 34
PART II.-HEALTH CONDITIONS.
GENERAL REMARKS.
87. In the absence of some general system of registration of sickness, the only sources of information available for gauging the state of the public health in the Colony are the returns relating to deaths, the notifications of infectious diseases and the records of Government and Chinese hospitals. Judging from the death returns the health of the Colony was not so good as that of the previous year. The crude death rate was 26.60 per mille as compared with 22.90 for 1935.
88. Respiratory diseases accounted for 39.70 per cent of the total deaths; the percentage for 1935 was 41.62. The principal diseases causing death were broncho-pneumonia, pulmonary tuberculosis, bronchitis, infantile diarrhoea and diarrhoea.
89. The overcrowded houses, the expectorating habits of the people, and poverty, furnish sufficient explanation for the prevalence of respiratory troubles.
MALARIA.
90. This disease which in the early days of the Colony was the great cause of death and from which Hong Kong derived its reputation of unhealthiness, has now practically disappeared from the populous centres of Victoria and Kowloon as the result of the destruction of the breeding places of the carriers through efficient drainage. There is still some malaria in the outskirts of the two towns and a considerable amount in the rural areas of both the Island and Mainland.
91. Very extensive work in the way of investigation and research has been carried out by the Malariologist and his staff. Many thousands of anopheline larvae have been examined and identified and many thousands of anopheline adults have been captured and dissected. Serum tests with the contents of mosquito stomachs have shown what animal blood is preferred by each species. As a result of this work it is now known what species of anophelines exist in the Colony, where they breed, on what they feed and their malaria carrying powers.
...
92. The Colony now possesses all the knowledge necessary to successfully combat malaria. Any particular area freed from the menace of mosquitoes, and kept free provided there be the power to act, the machinery to carry out the necessary measures and the means to pay the costs.
- M 34
PART II.-HEALTH CONDITIONS.
GENERAL REMARKS.
87. In the absence of some general system of registration of sickness, the only sources of information available for gauging the state of the public health in the Colony are the returns relating to deaths, the notifications of infectious diseases and the records of Government and Chinese hospitals. Judging from the death returns the health of the Colony was not so good as that of the previous year. The crude death rate was 26.60 per mille as compared with 22.90 for 1935.
88. Respiratory diseases accounted for 39.70 per cent of the total deaths; the percentage for 1935 was 41.62. The prin- cipal diseases causing death were broncho-pneumonia, pulmonary tuberculosis, bronchitis, infantile diarrhoea and diarrhoea.
89. The overcrowded houses, the expectorating habits of the people, and poverty, furnish sufficient explanation for the pre- valence of respiratory troubles.
MALARIA.
90. This disease which in the early days of the Colony was the great cause of death and from which Hong Kong derived its reputation of unhealthiness, has now practically disappeared from the populous centres of Victoria and Kowloon as the result of the destruction of the breeding places of the carriers through efficient drainage. There is still some malaria in the outskirts of the two towns and a considerable amount in the rural areas of both the Island and Mainland.
91. Very extensive work in the way of investigation and research has been carried out by the Maiariologist and his staff. Many thousands of anopheline larvae have been examined and identified and many thousands of anopheline aduits have been captured and dissected. Serum tests with the contents of tnosquito stomachs have shown what animal blood is preferred by each species. As a result of this work it is now known what species of anophelines exist in the Colony, where they breed, on what they feed and their malaria carrying powers.
...
92 The Colony now possesses all the knowledge necessary to successfully combat malaria. Any particular area freed from the menace of mosquitoes, and kept free provided there be the power to act, the machinery to carry out the neces- sary measures and the means to pay the costs.
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