Sessional_Paper_1898 — Page 427

HONGKONG.

423

No. 33

98

REPORT ON THE EPIDEMIC OF BUBONIC PLAGUE IN HONGKONG IN THE YEAR 1898.

Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor.

To The President

of the SANITARY BOARD.

SANITARY BOARD OFFICES, HONGKONG, 25th August, 1898.

SIR, I have the honour to subunit for the information of His Excellency the Officer Administer- ing the Government the following Report upon the epidemic of Bubonic Fever (Plague) which has occurred during the current year.

}

The total number of cases reported has been 1,315, of which 75 were among non-Chinese; during the first quarter of the year 213 cases occurred (7 being non-Chinese), during the second quarter there were 1,094 cases (66 of which were among non-Chinese), while during July there were 7 cases (2 being non-Chinese), and during August one case was reported, but this was subsequently consider- ed to have been one of Remittent Fever.

The following is a tabular statement of the non-Chinese cases :-

European,

Portuguese,

Indian,.....

Japanese,

Filipinos,

January.

February.

March.

April.

May.

June.

July.

Total.

1

3

::

☺ co → ∞

15

3

10 30 00 10

01

26

13

4

24

10

2

2 5 27 35

4 2 75

The incidence of the disease upon the two sexes is shown in the following table:-

Chinese cases,

Non-Chinese cases,.

( Male,......775)

}

} Female,...465 = 1,240

Male,...... 52 Female,... 23)

--

75

It is interesting to note that among the Chinese the females suffered in a much less proportion during the first quarter of the year than during the second quarter; thus during January-March there were 206 Chinese cases of which 59 were females or 28.6 per cent., while during April-June there were 1,028 Chinese cases of which 383 were females or 37.2 per cent.

The proportion of females in the Chinese population is 29.9 per cent., and I think that the much higher proportion of female cases during the second quarter suggests that many of the earlier cases were imported by males (who are naturally the greater travellers) and that, when the infection had thus become again located in the houses, the women suffered more severely, as would be expected, from the fact that they are more confined to the houses than are the men.

A consideration of the ages of the patients shows that Chinese children suffered very consider- ably, for there were 299 Chinese cases at ages under 15 years, which is equal to more than 24 per cent. of the total cases whereas the proportion of children under that age in the Chinese population is only 18 per cent.

The death-rate among the Chinese was considerably higher than among the non-Chinese, for of the 75 non-Chinese cases 49 died or 65.3 per cent., whereas of the 1,240 Chinese cases 1,111 died or 89.6 per cent.; the determining causes of this higher mortality being, no doubt, interior physique, less healthy surroundings and lack of the necessary medical treatment of the disease.