X1000306-1963-64_Part01 — Page 19

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Malaria

103. Cases notified numbered 377 and there was one death. This disease is reviewed in detail in paragraphs 168 to 177 of this report.

Measles

104. The epidemic which commenced in the last quarter of 1962 continued into 1963 and reached its peak in January of that year. The case fatality rate remained high, reflecting the incomplete notification of the disease.

Tuberculosis

105. Tuberculosis continued to be the major public health problem in Hong Kong and is considered in detail in paragraphs 117 to 167 of this report.

Poliomyelitis

106. Only 53 cases of acute poliomyelitis were notified during the year as compared with 363 during 1962. Of these 53 cases only one occurred during the last nine months of the year-a period which had registered previously the highest incidence.

107. It is highly probable that this marked decrease resulted from the successful poliomyelitis vaccination campaign using oral Sabin-type vaccine and conducted during the first three months of 1963. In this campaign, 500,387 children aged 3 months to 5 years (approximately 85% of children in that age-group), received 2 doses of vaccine.

108. This campaign was continued at all Maternal and Child Health Centres for one week in each month of the year, with particular emphasis on children aged three months to one year. In spite of intensive propaganda and general health education, the response was poor and two further mass campaigns were held in the months of January and March, 1964. As a result of these, 92.571 children, or 77.3% of those in the target age group, received one dose of the vaccine and by the end of March. 1964. 59,981 had received two doses.

109. Faecal surveys on children known to be unvaccinated but close contacts of vaccinated children were carried out during the year in the months of April, June, August and December. The first took place six weeks after the ending of the second mass feeding of oral vaccine and gave an excretion rate of 43.3 per thousand of vaccine strains, evidence of spread of vaccine virus; 'wild' virus was rarely encountered.

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110. Three serological surveys for poliomyelitis anti-bodies were carried out; these showed a relatively low conversion rate to type I anti- bodies. There was some evidence of anti-body formation due to spread of vaccine virus from vaccinated to unvaccinated children.

Ophthalmia Neonatorum

111. There has been little change in the incidence of this discase during recent years.

Puerperal Fever

112. Two cases with one death were reported during the year, both being delivered at home without help of a doctor or a qualified midwife.

Scarlet Fever

113. The recorded incidence of this disease remained unchanged.

Whooping Cough

114. The numbers of notifications declined by 37.7% compared to

1962.

Influenza

Other Communicable Diseaser

115. The notification of influenza is entirely voluntary. Cases reported during the year numbered 3,483 with 27 deaths as compared with 6,374 with 39 deaths in 1962. Only one throat washing specimen, amongst 40 taken in November, was positive for influenza virus, this specimen being antigenically identical with the A2/57 (A/Asian/57) strain.

Tetanus

116. A total of 120 cases was notified during the year of which 56 occurred in new-born infants, mostly among those delivered at home in villages of the New Territories. In such cases, assistance by an untrained person, the use of unsterile material and instruments and the common practice of applying a powder containing raw ground ginger root to the umbilicus as a styptic, combine to give a grave risk of tetanus neona- torum. Children attending Maternal and Child Health Centres are given routine immunization against tetanus using the toxoid prepara- tions. The health education of parents and others in the areas most

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