AnnualReport-1938 — Page 492

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of such neglect the little ones die of smallpox, then it is almost a case of murder of innocent children. Even those who have been vaccinated a few years ago ought not to think that they are therefore immune from attack. I have a friend Mr. Chang, the Secretary of the Macao Race Club, who has had a vaccination once a year for the past fifteen years, and who thought that this year he would not take because for the past fifteen years this has been the case. He was vaccinated recently and to his surprise the vaccination took very fully. This is

This is a proof that this year the epidemic is the most severe known in Hong Kong. Therefore, even if you have had vaccination seven or eight times in your life you must be vaccinated again. Further, even infants should be vaccinated, and I would urge that parents should start to allow their infants to be vaccinated when they are three weeks old. I have tried to impress upon you the great importance of being vaccinated, and I hope very fervently that, with you all co-operating by seeing that everyone near you is duly vaccinated, this virulent epidemic of ours will soon disappear from our midst.

Good-night, everybody.

(Note: This radio broadcast in Chinese was made by Mr. Ho Kom Tong, O.B.E., a distinguished and influential Chinese citizen of Hong Kong and the leader of herbalist practitioners. It provides an example of public health propaganda carried out at the initiation of the Government Medical Department in which valuable lessons are taught, even though some of the views expressed—e.g., the influence of gun-powder and the bodies of persons killed in action on the incidence of smallpox—may be a little unorthodox! P.S. S-C.)

Appendix IV.

CHOLERA IN HONG KONG IN 1938.

1. The first case of cholera was notified on May 25th, 1938. The disease occurred sporadically throughout June and in July began to reach epidemic proportions. The virulence of the disease abated as the summer wore on, and the death-rate which had been 71 per centum during the first two months—that is to say in June and July—was reduced to 30-40 per centum during the months of August, September and October. The main cause of this reduction is undoubtedly to be ascribed to the well-known decrease of virulence noted in all the major epidemic diseases when an epidemic is declining; but another factor which certainly exerted some influence upon the mortality was the introduction of a routine line of treatment which was inculcated into and carried out by the staff of the hospital. It is probably more than mere coincidence that the abandonment of the experimental phase in treatment synchronised with an immediate fall in the mortality of the disease. The numerical incidence of the disease decreased as winter came on, but a few cases occurred in December and three remained in hospital at the end of the year.

2. When the cases are arranged in age groups it will be noticed that the mortality peaks are attained at the extremes of life. Old women survived the disease more readily than old men, little boys more readily than little girls.

The age groups are as follows:-