X1000306-1962-63_Part01 — Page 6

1. GENERAL REVIEW

THE estimated mid-year population of Hong Kong in 1962 was 3,400,300 of whom some 40% are aged 15 years or younger. Living under candi- tions of average densities of 1,800 - 2,000 to the acre in the urban areas with intermittent water supplies and some 25% of the urban population depending on a night soil conservancy service for sanitation, environ- mental conditions inevitably predispose to the transmission of the communicable diseases. The standard of nutrition is generally good. there is relatively full employment and standards of living are rising steadily as the rehousing programme develops.

2. Despite the conditions of over-crowding, the necessity to store water in tenement houses and the environmental conditions in the older tenement houses along the waterfronts and in the central districts of Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula, the community health record during the year was remarkably good. The crude death rate remained low at 5.9 per 1,000 and the infant mortality rate declined further to 36.9 per 1,000 live births. The neo-natal mortality rate has remained relatively constant over the past four years ranging between 20.9 and 21.3 per 1,000 live births. The birth rate fell from 34.2 per 1,000 in 1961 to 32.8 per 1,000 in 1962 and the maternal mortality rate continued low at 0.48 per 1,000.

3. There were three important events which posed a definite threat to the public health. The first was the sudden and unexpected influx of illegal immigrants numbering some 140,000 in May and June. Later, in August, cholera El Tor again re-appeared and on the 1st of September. typhoon Wanda, which was the worst typhoon the Colony had experi enced since 1937, rendered many thousands homeless and made neces- sary many emergency centres for their reception and feeding. Despite these events, there were no related outbreaks of epidemic disease.

4. The large influx of illegal immigrants at a time when cholera might be expected to recur had apparently no influence on the outbreak which began at the end of August. A number of immigrants were examined during the influx and the night soil from latrines at the recep- tion centre where illegal immigrants were detained was investigated bacteriologically with entirely negative results.