XN000022-1973-07-03 — Page 11

10

Tuesday, July 3, 1973

CLEANLINESS MORE IMPORTANT THAN INOCULATION

The Director of Medical and Health Services, Dr. G.H. Choa, said

today the public should begin to realise that "to prevent cholera it is more

important to focus attention on environmental cleanliness and personal hygiene

than on inoculation."

In a second preventive statement issued at the start of the cholera

season, traditionally associated with the hot weather, Dr. Choa said: "Experience

since 1961 from the usual cholera breeding grounds in Southeast Asia shows

that the use of cholera vaccine alone has not been entirely successful in

preventing the spread of the disease.

"Therefore the most reliable, and the safest, measures are to

ensure cleanliness in the preparation and consumption of food, and good

personal hygiene."

He explained that the latter meant the washing of hands before meals

and after visits to the toilet, "because the oholera vibrio, or disease germ,

cannot enter the human body unless it is swallowed."

Food and drink could be contaminated by dirty hands. The disease

could also be transmitted by a fly carrying the germ if the insect were

permitted to settle on food, he said.

In the meantime, departmental measures being taken to prevent any

outbreak of cholera, and to locate possible carriers of the disease, include

the testing of nightsoil and samples from all cases of diarrhoes that come to

light.

/11