XN000022-1974-05-16 — Page 2

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1974

FURTHER PROGRESS MADE IN CONTROL OF TUBERCULOSIS DR CHUA STRIKES OPTIMISTIC NOTE IN SPEECH TO ASSOCIATION

*****A

TUBERCULOSIS NOTIFICATIONS DECLINED IN HONG KONG TO 196 PER 100,000 POPULATION IN 1973 FROM THE 206.6 FOR THE SAME POPULATION RATIO IN 1972.

THE DEATH RATE FELL LAST YEAR TO 27.7 PER 100,000 POPULATION FROM THE PREVIOUS RATE OF 32.2.

DR. GERALD CHOA, DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES, GAVE THESE STATISTICS THIS AFTERNOON IN HIS CAPACITY AS PRESIDENT OF THE HONG KONG ANTI-TUBERCULOSIS AND THORACIC DISEASES ASSOCIATION AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING.

HE TOLD THE GATHERING THESE RESULTS WERE SO FAVOURABLE THEY MADE IT EVIDENT THAT MUCH HAD BEEN ACCOMPLISHED IN THE FIGHT

THERE WAS EVERY REASON TO BE AGAINST TUBERCULOSIS IN HONG KONG. PLEASED, ALTHOUGH THERE REMAINED MANY PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED -- SOME OF WHICH HAD ARISEN PRECISELY AS A RESULT OF THE IMPROVE- MENT OF THE SITUATION ALL ROUND.+

IN HIS VIEW, THE TIME HAD COME TO TAKE STOCK BEFORE MAKING PLANS TO FORGE AHEAD.+

DR. CHOA SAID THE SITUATION TODAY WAS THAT WHILE THERE WERE MORE MEN THAN WO::EN AMONG THE PATIENTS, THE DISEASE NOW COMMONLY AFFECTED THE OLDER AGE GROUPS, AND WAS RARELY DETECTED AMONG CHILDREN U.DER 15, THE SHIFT IN AGE DISTRIBUTION BEING >A REFLECTION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE B.C.G. PROGRAMME.+

B.C.G. VACCINATION WAS NOT OFFERED AT BIRTH, ON ENTERING SCHOOL, AND ON LEAVING SCHOOL. HE ESTIMATED THAT 95 PER CENT OF THE NEW-BORN IN HONG KONG VERS RECEIVING D.C.G. AT BIRTH, AND HE DESCRIBED THE RESULTS AS SPEC: {CULAR,+

HE RECALLED THAT IN 1953, NO FEUER THAN 1,251 CHILDREN UNDER FIVE DIED FROM TUBERCULCSI, UNILE LAST YEAR CALY GE CHILD HAD DIED. TUBERCULOSIS MENINGITIS, NOU MEAD IN A CENTRALISEO UNIT, WAS NO LONGER A COMMON DISEASE. +

1

/BUE, DESPITE