XN000022-1973-12-03 — Page 5

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Monday, December 3, 1973

SERIOUS INCREASE IN INCIDENCE OF MEASLES

There were 112 notifications of measles during October, and one

death, according to the monthly health returns issued by the Medical and

Health Department today.

The figures brought the total of measles' notifications so far

this year to 714, with 12 deaths.

A spokesman for the department said the totals justified a

warning to parents of the possibility of a measles epidemic this winter,

and he urged them to take advantage of the second phase of the 1973 anti-

measles vaccination campaign starting on December 3, and lasting one month,

to have their children immunised.

"Since measles' immunisation was begun in Hong Kong in January,

1968, there has been a very great reduction in the minber of deaths from

the disease, but even so, in the period between January 1968 and November

1973, 105 children have needlessly died from measles," he commented.

With the use of measles vaccine, it had been hoped that the

epidemics occurring every two years would be a thing of the past, but this

seemed, according to a reading of the chart, not to be the case.

"The biennial characteristic of the disease seems to be re-

appearing, and it is likely that an epidemic of measles could be developing,

which could reach its maximum between January and April next year," the

spokesman said.

/In view

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