Although the work of the almoners department has not expanded during this year we feel we have consolidated and carried out most of the schemes which were in view in 1949. The shortage of staff has made it impossible to expand at all but our schemes for the future are very hopeful. We would like to thank all those associations and individuals who have helped our patients during the year.
ANNEXURE N.
A. M. BALLANTYNE, Principal Almoner, 25th April, 1951.
ANNUAL REPORT OF MALARIA BUREAU.
In addition to the routine work of the Bureau, much consultative work was done with the Royal Navy, Army and Air Force, and further, experimental work into the properties of Water Miscible Gammexane as a mosquito and fly larvicide.
CONTROL.
Imagocides.
Residual spraying by DDT was carried out in three areas:
Firstly: As a supplementary Barrier check in Chinese villages on the perimeter of the larval controlled areas-namely Pokfulam, Shek 0, Chai Wan, Stanley, Telegraph Bay, Lai Chi Kok, and Ngau Chí Wan.
This was done at three-monthly intervals.
Secondly: The perimeter villages surrounding the Army Camps at 22, 24 mile, Sekong, Sun Wai and Lam Chuen in an attempt to minimize the number of latent B.T. infections among the troops who are on prophylactic Paludrinë.
Thirdly: The whole of the Government quarters in the New
Territories.
Control of Breeding.
The larval control programme of the previous year was main- tained in its entirety, fe. the whole of the inhabited area of Hong Kong Island, and in Kowloon, an area extending from Laichikok in the west to a mile beyond the Airport in the east, and as far north as the Kowloon
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Reservoir. In addition to this work it was found possible to extend the control area northwards from Lyemun to Rennie's Mill to protect the 20,800 immigrants in the area, and also to include Cheung Chau Island. Further to control the area of Paddy in the New Territories northwest of the Laichikok Hospital. Much work was also done for the Army, Navy and Air Force on the perimeter of their various establishments in the New Territories and adjacent islands.
Permanent Work.
In regard to permanent work, the concrete filling of pools along the sea coast was continued by the staff of the Malaria Bureau and some 30,000 pools were thus dealt with. The whole of the sea coast between Kennedy Town and Tytam has now been done and permanently cleared of Aedes togoi.
Experimental Control of Larval Breeding by Water Miscible Gammesang.
In the early part of the year water miscible Gammexane became available locally, and experiments were undertaken to determine its suitability as a larvicide under local conditions.
These proved eminently successful, and it was found that com- plete control of breeding would be obtained both in uncleared streams and in paddy by a dosage which was non injurious to vegetation. This represented a great advance over control by malariol in that paddy and vegetable crops using pools and stream water could be controlled without damage to the crop, relations and co-operation with the farming population were considerably improved, and finally leas labour was required to do expensive clearing of vegetation.
Further experiments by the Malaria Bureau to produce a "Gammexane brick" to reduce the weekly application of Gammexane by spraying, were also successful.
It was found that 25% Gammexane and 75% Plaster of Paris formed a brick which completely inhibited larval breeding in tanks and still pools for two months, and in small streams for one month,
As a result of these experiments, it was decided to change over from control by malariol, to control by water miscible Gammexane, and so reduce the labour force by 90 men in June. The saving in wages from this source enabled the many extensions of the control programme already described to be undertaken within the limit of the Anti Malaria Field Work Vote.
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