Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
COLONIAL REPORTS-ANNUAL.
The total number of cases recorded during the above period was 1,204, and the number of deaths from the disease 1,078, giving a mortality rate of 89.5 per cent.
From these figures it will be observed that the extent of the epidemic was much more limited than that of 1894 which resulted in 2,550 deaths in the Colony itself, but it is a regrettable experience of the year 1896 that notwithstanding the fuller knowledge possessed by the scientific world of its nature and the improved methods of treatment, the disease does not lose any of its virulence and showed a greater tendency to spread to Europeans, of whom 16 were attacked and 8 succumbed, including, I regret to record, two Sisters in the Italian Convent, two British soldiers, and two British employés of the Government.
During the progress of the epidemic the Sanitary Board and its staff, ably assisted by the police and some soldiers, whose services were kindly placed at the disposal of the Government, and others who voluntarily gave their assistance, were untiring in their efforts to suppress the disease. They were, however, confronted with the same difficulties at the outset that were experienced in 1894, and with a misapprehension of the situation which is essentially Asiatic, the Chinese persisted in eluding the vigilance of the Sanitary Authorities and availed themselves of every facility for the secret removal of their sick relatives and friends from the Colony. In many cases they were detected in the endeavour to dispose of their dying or dead in total disregard of all sanitary principles, casting them out into the streets or into the harbour, or at best removing them to some unoccupied dwelling. It was thus extremely difficult for the sanitary officers to discover "infected" dwellings, and it became necessary to resort to drastic measures for the general disinfection and lime-washing of all Chinese dwellings within the infected districts.
I am glad to be able to state that but little opposition was offered by the Chinese Community to this very necessary preventive measure, and to their co-operation in this matter and to the tact with which the Sanitary Authorities performed an unpleasant duty, I attribute the ultimate success which attended the efforts to confine the epidemic during its duration within comparatively narrow limits.
The expenditure incurred in dealing with the disease amounted to some $71,000 as against some $150,000 expended in suppressing the epidemic of 1894, a financial aspect of the case which serves to illustrate the comparative severity of the two visitations and indirectly the beneficial effects of improved sanitation and the value of experience even though such experience costs dearly. Another gratifying feature of the more recent epidemic was the entire absence of anything in the form of a general panic amongst
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Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
COLONIAL REPORTS-ANNUAL.
The total number of cases recorded during the above period was 1,204, and the number of deaths from the disease 1,078, giving a mortality rate of 89.5 per cent.
From these figures it will be observed that the extent of the epidemic was much more limited than that of 1894 which resulted in 2,550 deaths in the Colony itself, but it is a re- grettable experience of the year 1896 that notwithstanding the fuller knowledge possessed by the scientific world of its nature and the improved methods of treatment, the disease does not lose any of its virulence and shewed a greater tendency to spread to Europeans, of whom 16 were attacked and 8 succumbed, including, I regret to record, two Sisters in the Italian Convent, two British soldiers, and two British employés of the Government.
During the
progress of the epidemic the Sanitary Board and its staff, ably assisted by the police and some soldiers, whose services were kindly placed at the disposal of the Government, and others who voluntarily gave their assistance, were untiring in their efforts to suppress the disease. They were, however, confronted with the same difficulties at the outset that were experienced in 1894, and with a misapprehension of the situation which is essentially Asiatic, the Chinese persisted in eluding the vigilance of the Sanitary Authorities and availed themselves of every facility for the secret removal of their sick relatives and friends from the Colony. In many cases they were detected in the endeavour to dispose of their dying or dead in total disregard of all sanitary principles, casting them out into the streets or into the harbour, or at best removing them to some unoccupied dwelling. It was thus extremely difficult for the sanitary officers to discover "infected" dwellings, and it became necessary to resort to drastic measures for the general disin- fection and lime-washing of all Chinese dwellings within the infected districts.
I am glad to be able to state that but little opposition was offered by the Chinese Community to this very necessary preventive measure, and to their co-operation in this matter and to the tact with which the Sanitary Authorities performed an unpleasant duty, I attribute the ultimate success which attended the efforts to confine the epidemic during its duration within comparatively narrow limits.
The expenditure incurred in dealing with the disease amounted to some $71,000 as against some $150,000 expended in suppressing the epidemic of 1894, a financial aspect of the case which serves to illustrate the comparative severity of the two visitations and indirectly the beneficial effects of improved sanitation and the value of experience even though such experience costs dearly. Another gratifying feature of the more recent epidemic was the entire absence of anything in the form of a general panic amongst
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