XN000022-1972-10-10 — Page 3

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Tuesday, October 10, 1972

POOR RESULTS FROM ANTI-MEASLES CAMPAIGN

A total of 12,895 children were protected against measles during

the nine weeks of the 1972 anti-measles vaccination campaign which has

just ended.

Announcing this today, the Director of Medical and Health Services,

Dr. G.H. Choa, commented: "I consider such a result extremely poor,

bearing in mind all the measures we took during the campaign to draw

the attention of parents to the need for anti-measles vaccination —

not only for their children, but also to prevent an outbreak of the

disease in Hong Kong."

He said that although the campaign itself was over, and the

special mobile vaccine facilities and door-to-door visits to resettlement

estates had ended, anti-measles vaccinations were still routinely available

at all government maternal and child health centres.

In the ninth and last week of the campaign, a total of 1,010

doses of the vaccine was administered.

Of these, 187 were administered

to children on the Island, 503 in Kowloon, and 320 in the New Territories.

The campaign began on August 8.

The incidence of measles has tended to fall into a distinct

biennial pattern, with a rash of the disease breaking out on alternate

winters and springs. Free anti-measles vaccine has been made available

since December 1967.

The last