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Occupational Therapy Department, Queen Elizabeth Hospital-bere patients

receive rehabilitation training from an instructor.

Physiotherapy Department. Queen Elizabeth Hospital-here patients receive treatment at the hydrotherapy pool.

of inoculators participating in prophylactic immunization drives. Five such drives were staged during the year and reference has already been made to four, namely, cholera, poliomyelitis, measles and diphtheria (and in the latter campaign the vaccine used combined immunization against diphtheria with active anti-tetanus prophylaxis). The fifth, pro- moting smallpox vaccination, was held in February 1970. The increas- ing importance of Hong Kong in international travel by sea and air and the prevalence of smallpox in nearby countries underline the need to maintain a high level of community protection against the discase.

TUBERCULOSIS (Tables 17-23)

42. As stated previously, tuberculosis is the major health problem of Hong Kong. The policy for control of the disease has been to protect. by vaccination with B.CG., the new-bom, who are particularly vulner- able to the fulminating forms of the disease, and the primary school entrants who may develop active discase later in life. For actual cases of the disease it has now been shown that in a large proportion of cases out-patient therapy is at least as good as institutional treatment. The not inconsiderable institutional resources are reserved for those not responding to out-patient therapy, for acutely ill cases, for those where the diagnosis is in doubt, and for those in need of surgical intervention. In the execution of this policy there has been a high degree of co- operation between Government and voluntary agencies concerned with the problem, particularly the Hong Kong Anti-Tuberculosis and Thoracic Diseases Association. The Government Chest Service maintains the B.C.G. vaccination and out-patient treatment programme, while the voluntary agencies, aided by substantial Government subventions, maintain most of the hospitals.

43. To keep pace with the rapid changes which are occuring in the fields of treatment and prevention of tuberculosis, close liaison is maintained with agencies outside the Colony. At the end of the year under review a most important study in conjunction with the Medical Research Council of the United Kingdom was started. Briefly, this study makes a comparison between the established treatment with second line drugs of resistant cases of tuberculosis and a new treatment based on ethambutol and rifampicin given either daily or intermittently.

44. During the period June to August 1969 a joint study with the World Health Organization to determine the most efficacious method of administering B.C.G. in the circumstances of Hong Kong was carried out. Results are now under analysis.

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