575984-1938-Supplementary-Bills-read-a-first-time---Protection-of-Women-and-Girls — Page 20

225

A BILL

INTITULED

[No. 4-11.4.38.-1.]

An Ordinance to amend the Vaccination Ordinance, 1923.

Be it enacted by the Governor of Hong Kong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Vaccination Short title. Amendment Ordinance, 1938.

2. Section 16 of the Vaccination Ordinance, 1923, is Amendment

of s. 16 (1) amended by the repeal of the words ", who in his opinion

of Ordinance has been subjected to the risk of infection from smallpox,' No. 12 of

1923. in the fourth and fifth lines of sub-section (1) thereof.

Objects and Reasons.

1. A virulent type of smallpox is endemic in Hong Kong and South China and results in many deaths each year.

2. Every effort has been made by means of posters, pamphlets, propaganda in the press and the local broadcasting service to induce persons exposed to the risk of infection to protect themselves by vaccination, which is carried out free of charge by public vaccinators, but many have failed to avail themselves of this protection and the number of deaths from smallpox this year already exceeds 1,400.

3. Section 16 (1) of the principal Ordinance empowers the Medical Officer of Health to require the vaccination of any person who in his opinion has been subjected to the risk of infection from smallpox", but this measure is impracticable in many instances where the bodies of those who have died of smallpox have been dumped in the streets or the harbour, and in many others where smallpox cases are concealed in houses.

4. Section 2 of this Ordinance, by repealing the restric- tive words quoted above in section 16 (1) of the principal Ordinance, empowers the Medical Officer of Health or any public vaccinator deputed for the purposes of section 16 to require the vaccination or re-vaccination, free of charge, of any person who in his opinion should be vaccinated or re-vaccinated.

5. This amendment is designed to enable the health authorities effectively to carry out vaccination campaigns, particularly in thickly-populated areas inhabited by the work- ing classes, where infection is widespread but where it is often quite impossible to prove exposure to the risk of infection from any particular case.

J. A. FRASER,

Attorney General.

April, 1938.