X1000306-1966-67_Part01 — Page 10

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Measles

26. As shown in Figars 4, measles in Hong Kong has shown a distinct biennial pattern with exacerbation of the disease during the winter months of every alternate year. The 1966-67 epidemic started earlier than in the previous years with rising notifications from June 1966 onwards and reaching a peak in January and February of 1967.

NOTIPICATIONS; DEATHS

2.009

FOCUSE

MONTHLY MEASLES NOTIFICATIONS & DEATHS

JANUARY 1960-MARCH 19

1

LANDO

1200

Пол

nchi

د النيل

JIM

NOTIFICATIONS

DEATHS

1501

1953

awny

Fed

1447

YEAR

27. The disease affected predominantly children under the age of two years. The true value of the recorded mortality as related to incidence is difficult to assess as notification is very incomplete and. furthermore, many cases only present at hospital after the onset of complications. This delay in seeking treatment is further borne out by the high percentage of total measles deaths reported from public mortuaries, mainly due to complicating bronchopneumonia. During the epidemic parents of children suffering from measles were exhorted through press and radio to seek carly medical advice.

28. A trial of measles vaccines was undertaken during the year, and consideration is being given to making the vaccine available to children in the susceptible age group. Details of this trial are recorded in para- graph 79.

Poliomyelitis

29. Incidence of the discase remained low during 1966 after a recrudescence in early 1965; 32 cases including 1 death were notified in 1966 compared with 140 cases with 17 deaths in the preceding year. It is as yet too early to say whether the decrease is attributable to a change in the composition of the trivalent vaccine used or to the com- mencement in April 1966 of a programme of administering Type I vaccine soon after birth and followed by a full course of 2 doses of trivalent vaccine at 3 months old. Approximately 80% of infants born after 1st April, 1966 received one dose of Type I vaccine soon after birth and more than half of these children subsequently received two doses of the trivalent vaccine at Maternal and Child Health Centres. A general campaign is mounted annually in an attempt to immunize the remainder.

30. Virological investigation of the disease is maintained on * routine and year-round basis. Poliomyelitis virus Type I remained the predominant organism in clinical cases. The age pattern of the disease remained unchanged with 90% of the notified cases being below the age of 5.

Influenza

31. The notification of influenza is entirely voluntary and hence too great a significance cannot be placed upon the recorded incidence. Virological investigations of throat swabbings and throat washings are continued on a year-round basis. Influenza B virus was identified on

two occasions.

Tetanus

32. This disease, although not notifiable, is recorded with reasonable accuracy owing to the severity of the symptoms requiring hospitalisation of clinical cases. In past years, approximately half the cases reported were in newborns whose birth had not been attended by trained per- sonnel and who had been exposed to various bazards from unsterile materials, particularly the use of a powder containing raw ground ginger root as an umbilical styptic. It is encouraging to record that, in 1966, tetanus neonatorum was responsible for only one-seventh of the recorded cases of the disease and that the infantile mortality from such infection