174. The number of clinics in operation remained the same Ba in 1955. Two additional posts of Female Social Hygiene Visitors were filled in July 1956 to deal with the increased number of contact notifications and follow-up visits to de. faulters.
175. 3,435 contact notifications were received during the year. Approximately half of these were from the Armed Services; none was forwarded by private medical practitioners.
176. A high percentage of success in contact tracing was maintained (81%), though similar success with the follow-up of defaulters from treatment at clinics is not yet apparent,
177. Antenatal blood tests for expectant mothers showed a lower positive rate than has yet been recorded in these investi- gations. 3.8% of 26,083 such tests carried out during 195€ were positive compared with 4.5% of the previous year's total. 178. Special services for seamen, and for cases referred by the sterility clinics of the Family Planning Association continued to be provided on an increasing scale.
179. Several new investigative procedures were introduced during the year. The quantitative V.D.R.L. (Venereal Disease Research Laboratory) test became routine in all positive qualita. tive tests, and cultures for gonococci combined with a penicillin sensitivity test were made on a large group of prostitutes reported as contacts.
180. In treatment the use of Benzathine Penicillin tended to replace procaine penicillin preparations and "Triplopen" (a combination of crystalline penicillin, procaine penicillin aud benzathine penicillin) was commonly employed for all-purpose infection therapy. Penicillin V was introduced for oral treat- ment in selected patients.
181. The Social Hygiene Specialist attended the First Inter- national Conference on Venereal Disease at Washington, U.S.A. in May 1956 prior to his overseas vucation leave.
182. A table showing details of new cases seen at Social Hy- giene Out-patient Clinics during 1956 is given in Appendix 6.
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Maternal and Child Health Services.
183. The Government midwifery service has 37 district midwives working from 19 widely scattered centres in the urban areas and New Territories.
184. 12 centres, all in the more rural areas, have attached maternity homes with a total of 105 beds. The remaining centres provide & domiciliary delivery service only.
185. 11,013 deliveries were conducted during 1956 by the Government midwifery service, 7,660 in the maternity homes and 3,358 in private houses. There were 148 still births, a rate of 18.2 per 1,000 live and still birtha. 159 cases were sent to hospital because of complications of pregnancy and child birth. 186. The average annual "case load" per midwife of 314 in 1956 was happily a little less than in 1955 (323) and varied from 83 at Silver Mine Bay to 854 at Yuen Long.
187. Ante-natal attendance figures again showed an improve- ment over the previous year. Over two thirds of all cases delivered received some pre-natal care. Average attendances per case were 3.11. 299 of the cases delivered had no ante-natal supervision of any kind; the great majority of these were in the New Territories and among the "floating" population.
188. There are 209 midwives actively engaged in private practice. 179 of these maintain small maternity homes, the remainder do domiciliary work. Live deliveries by midwives in private practice totalled 34,619 during 1956, i.e. over one third of the Colony's total registered births. The number of ante- natal attendances per case still remains disappointing (average 2.9 attendances per case) though the proportion of cases deliver- ed that receive supervision is 81.5%.
189. Regular inspection of the 133 registered private maternity homes is carried out. A total of 788 visits was made during the year. Special attention is paid to records and equipment.
190. 77 private midwives attended special classes in B.C.G. vaccination technique beld at the Tsan Yuk Hospital and Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital.
191. Successful efforts to increase the number of infants receiving B.C.G. vaccination have been made, and the steady improvement in the returns for this immunization has been
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