ENG-1963 — Page 211

HEALTH

167

superintendent. During the year the rapid development of north- east Kowloon made it necessary to form a new district of Kwun Tong as an offshoot from the Kowloon City area and to increase the number of health units in the district.

Standards of domestic hygiene are controlled by a system of house inspection in which all residential floors and huts are inspect- ed at intervals varying from three months to a year, except those in the most spacious residential areas. During these inspections, nuisances can be detected and action taken for their abatement. Another important aspect of the work of the district health staff is the hygienic control of food premises. Restaurants, cooked food stalls, food factories and other places where food is handled are inspected weekly to make sure that they are kept clean and operated hygienically. Night inspections of restaurants are also carried out and, in addition, senior officers carry out weekly sur- prise checks on all premises licensed by the Urban Council. The work of the district health inspectors in infectious disease control includes investigation of cases, tracing of the source of infection and of contacts, hospitalization of patients, disinfection of infected premises and advice on precautionary measures.

Eight food inspectors are employed on food sampling and other food hygiene duties in Hong Kong and Kowloon. Particular atten- tion is paid to food factories, especially frozen confection and milk factories, from which samples are taken regularly and to the pre- vention of the sale of diseased meat. Samples of water from public swimming pools are taken monthly for bacteriological examination. The inspectors are also responsible for the inspection of imported vegetables and fruit, and for inspection of meat and poultry covered by the Imported Meat and Poultry Regulations, which were brought into force on 1st May 1963.

The acute water shortage caused considerable hardship to restaurant and food factory proprietors, who normally rely on adequate supplies of water to keep their premises clean. During the period of shortage health inspectors visited all these premises to make sure that stocks of water were properly protected against contamination. Licensees of premises were advised to make their own arrangements for chlorinating water from doubtful sources. Handbills explaining in simple language how to purify water with bleaching powder were printed and distributed. At the same time