X1000307-1950-51_Part01 — Page 9

35. There was a communication between these two water supplies and without permission both the stop cocks were opened and it seems probable that the untreated water, being of greater pressure, entered the treated supply system and that troops drinking the water in the NAAFI did, on one or more occasions, drink untreated water.

36. All the cases occurred among the troops using this NAAFI. Officers and sergeants using another mess were not affected. It seems possible that there was some link between this untreated water and the outbreak of infective jaundice.

37. Eventually there was a total of 82 cases arising in this camp.

38. The second outbreak was one of sprue, Some 58 cases in all were discovered during 1950 and 6 more were suspected and under investi- gation at the end of the year. Of these 58 cases, 26 came from Sun Wai camp, where there had been this outbreak of infective jaundice.

42. As stated in my report last year this population figure must be accepted with some reserve in view of the fact that it gives a death rate in the Colony of 8.2 per mille. As the registration of births and deaths in Hong Kong is very complete, the population figure presents the only doubtful factor.

43. Table I gives the population figures from 1920 to 1950 excepting the period of occupation by the Japanese.

Year

1920

1921

1922

1923

TABLE I

Estimated Population

648,150

625,116

638,300

667,900

1924

695,500

1925

725,100

39. Out of 46 cases discovered in the last quarter of the year 34 of them gave a history of onset in the four months, May, June, July and August, the peak of the outbreak being in May with 12 cases followed by 8 in June and July and 6 in August. All cases occurred in Europeans who had been less than one year in the Colony and, in general, the majority of the cases came from the more primitive camps with a bucket sanitation, the exception being the Sun Wai camp, which has water borne sewage.

1926

710,100

1927

740,300

1928

766,700

1929

802,900

1930

898,800

1931

840,473

1932

900,812

1933

922,643

1934

944,492

1935

966,341

40. The high proportion of cases occurring in Sun Wai camp sug- gests that there may have been some connexion between this outbreak of sprue and the outbreak of infective jaundice.

III VITAL STATISTICS.

A. POPULATION,

41. The estimated population published by the Department of Statistics gave a mid-year figure of 2,265,000, which represents a half million increase over the year 1949. Medical statistics, such as the number of births and the number of deaths from such diseases as cancer, intra-cranial vascular lesions and cardiac lesions, tend to support this great increase in the population. It seems likely that during the latter part of the year there was a drop in the population which was estimated by the Department of Statistics to be at that time slightly over two million.

1946

1947

1948

1949

1950 (End of

June)

1,500,000

1,600,000

1,750,000

1,800,000

1,857,000

2,265,000

44. Table 2 shows the sex and age distribution of the population as given in the 1921 and 1931 censuses and in a sample survey in 1950 of 82,499 persons of the age of 12 and over,

1936

988,190

1937

1,281,982

1938

1,478,619

1939

1,750,256

1940

1,821,893

1941

1,639,357

1942-

1944

1945 (Sept.)

(Not available

Japanese Occupation)

Under 600,000

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