ENG-1957 — Page 175

148

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

again attacked. As a precautionary measure, in order to gain early warning, all medical practitioners were requested to notify voluntarily at twice weekly intervals influenza cases seen in their practices; so far there has been no evidence of a renewed invasion on any scale.

A considerable and sudden increase of diphtheria cases was recorded in the early autumn. Though there is always an increase in occurrence during the colder months, the incidence rose earlier than usual and cases numbered 1,239 by the end of the year, with 129 deaths. As is to be expected, non-immunized pre-school-age children accounted for the majority of cases. The annual anti-diphtheria immunization campaign, which began in August, has been intensified and will be extended until mid-January 1958. Over 300,000 im- munizations had been carried out by the end of 1957-

The general incidence of notifiable disease was little higher than in previous years, with a total of 18,170 cases and 2,965 deaths; but, in addition to the increased number of cases of diphtheria, more cases of tuberculosis and measles were notified. To obtain a fairer comparison, any increase in absolute numbers of infectious disease cases should be related to the considerable annual increase in the population at risk.

BIRTHS AND DEATHS

Births continued to show a rise in numbers though the birth rate was lower than in the previous year. The crude death rate remained low. The following table gives the statistics of births and deaths for the last five years:

Year

Births

Birth Rate per 1,000 of

Deaths

Death Rate per 1,000 of

estimated

estimated

population

population

1953

75,544

33.6

18,300

8.1

1954

83,317

36.6

19,283

8.5

1955

90,511

38.7

19,080

8.2

1956

96,746

39.7

19,295

7.9

1957

97,834

37.9

19,365

7.5