and the case fatality ratio is less than 2%. Transmission of infec tion is frequently associated with neglect in personal and food hygiene. As elsewhere the peak incidence occurred in children of school age and young adolescents. Free inoculation was offered and the usual pre- ventive measure enforced, with special attention to environmental and food hygiene and the control of food premises.
Malaria
20.
The incidence of malaria during recent years has fallen to a very low level, and for the first time in many years no local case due to natural transmission was reported. Of the 3 cases recorded during the year two were imported cases, while the remaining one was due to blood transfusion.
Meastes
23.
A total of 1,011 notifications of the disease were received during the year. As revealed in Figure 4. measles in Hong Kong has in the
AL OF MOTIF PRATIQUE
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FIGURE 4
MONTHLY MEASLES NOTIFICATIONS. 1960 – APRIL 1971
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previous years shown a distinct biennial pattern with exacerbation of the disease every alternate winter and spring. The last epidemic occurred in the winter months of 1966-67. Commencing at the end of December 1967, measles vaccine was made available at all Government Maternal and Child Health Centres to children aged between 6 and 48 months, and the vaccine was also made available through mobile teams to children living in resettlement and housing estates, tenement buildings and other crowded areas. Since the occurrence of the last epidemic in 1966-67, the disease incidence and its mortality have remained satisfactorily low.
24. These results were due, at least in part, to the immunization campaign which is now on a year-round basis, and the continuing health education efforts to encourage parents to seek early medical advice.
Poliomyelitis
25. Twenty-seven cases of poliomyelitis were reported during the year, an increase of Il cases when compared with 1969 and 22 cases when compared with 1967. Of the 27 cases, 24 were type 3 poliovirus infection confirmed by laboratory investigation, this being the highest number of type 3 poliovirus infection recorded in a single year since the introduction of the vaccination programme in 1965. The programme consists of giving one dose of type I polio-vaccine, soon after birth, followed by 2 doses of balanced trivalent vaccine al three and five months of age. Of the 27 reported cases, 6 were aged 5 to 7, the others were all under 5.
26. Approximately 73% of infants received one dose of type | polio-vaccine soon after birth and 70% of infants received two doses of the trivalent vaccine at Maternal and Child Health Centres. A general campaign is mounted annually, usually in January and March, in an attempt to immunize the remainder.
27. Virological investigation of the disease is maintained throughout the year. A poliomyelitis faecal survey in normal children aged under 5 years was carried out in June. The result showed that the excretor rate of vaccine types of poliovirus was about 3.5% among a total of 367 children included in the survey. The 'wild' types of poliovirus
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