540102-1905-Report-on-the-Epidemic-of-Plague-during-the-year-1904 — Page 1

THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 2nd JUNE, 1905.

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.--No. 340.

755

The following Report of the Acting Medical Officer of Health on the Epidemic of Plague in the Colony of Hongkong during year 1904, is published.

By Command,

F. H. MAY, Colonial Secretary.

Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 2nd June, 1905.

REPORT OF THE ACTING MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH ON THE EPIDEMIC OF PLAGUE IN THE COLONY OF HONGKONG DURING THE YEAR 1904.

SANITARY DEPARTMENT,

HONGKONG, February, 1905.

Sin, I have the honour to submit, for the information of the President and Members of the Sanitary Board, the following report on the Epidemic of Plague in the Colony during the year 1904.

The period chiefly dealt with as covering the Epidemic extends from the beginning of the year to the end of July.

This report was begun in August of last year (1904) but_owing to pressure of work and my subsequent absence on leave from October to January, the greater part was not undertaken until after my return on January 17th of this year.

Although there were thirty-eight cases of plague between the end of July and the end of the year, the period dealt with includes practically the whole of the time when the disease was epidemic and I did not think it advisable, on taking up the work on my return from leave, to re-write the part dealing with the statistics relative to mortality, age and sex incidence and the dumping of bodies, as this would have entailed considerable delay.

In commenting on the connection between rats and plague I have taken a period extending over twelve months so as to get a curve from the end of the 1903 epidemic to the end of the 1904 epidemic. The rat and human plague curves can therefore be studied during the epidemic and non-epidemie seasons.

During the months January to July inclusive there were 472 known cases of plague.

This number is only 346 per cent. of the total known cases which occurred in the corresponding period of 1903 (1,363 cases) and 41 cases less than occurred during the first seven months of 1902 (513 cases).

With the exception of the years 1895 and 1897 when there were only 44 and 21 cases respectively for the whole years, the figures for 1901 are the lowest the Colony has yet experienced.

The numbers of cases recorded in each month of each year from 1895 to 1904 (to end of July) are as follows :

YEAR.

MONTH.

1895. 1896. 1897. 1898.

1899. 1900. 1901.

1902. 1903. 1904.

January,

February,

49

9

1

7

125

67

2

14

March,

168

137

25

54

115

April.

316

468

101

May,

344

534

June.

13

113

July, August. September.

October... November, December.

52

27 272 40 421 326 701 157 515 135 92 514 325 551 194 348 191

263 209 109 331

160

96

25

ناه

אוז

27

IG

32

9

12

12

::༥

:***

?

H 1.204

21 1,320 1,486 1,087 | 1,651

572

1415 472