Epidemiology of conococcal disease in Hong Kong

Abstract

Records as early as 1819 show that gonococcal disease was a common problem in Hong Kong particularly amongst the armed forces. However in the subsequent years thl3 has varied as a result of legal control of prostitution, changing attitudes towards western medicine, wars, establishment of Venereal Disease clinics. (1928) and antibiotic treatment. In the thirteen years following the first use of penicillin and introduction of wider social hygiene activities there was a continuous yearly decrease in cases of gonococcal infection. In 1953, 1I625 cases were reported (775 per 100000 population 15 years and over) compared with 5096 cases in 1965 (210 per 100000). By 1978 the incidence had decreased to 65 per 100000 although there had been two peaks in 1968 and 1972 with rater reported respectively as 350 and 305 per 100000. From 1979 until 1987 the incidence of gonococcal infection increased gradually but decreased in 1988 and preliminary figures for 1989 suggest a possible substantial further reduction. In 1988, 491 cases (110 per 100000) were reported, a drop of 18.5% from 1987 and of these cases 87% were men and 13% were women. A total of 89% of the cases occurred in persons aged less than 10 years, 15.3% in persons aged 30-39 years, 67.2% in persons aged 20-29 years and 6.5% in teenagers. Whilst the incidence of gonococcal infection dropped among male teenagers, more teenage girls were affected particularly in the 13-16 age group. Another change noted over the last five years has been the number of ca3es infected abroad. In 1983, it was 19% and this has risen to 24.4% in 1988 with the six most commonly involved countries being Macau, China, Korea, Thailand, Phillipines and Taiwan. The greatest increase was from China, 10 cases (4.9%) in 1983 to 261 cases (25.7%) in 1988. Laboratory monitoring of gonococcal isolates for penicillin resistance has shown that the prevalence of resistant strains has varied over the last five years and currently stands at 53% Tor the first quarter of 1989 (60% of these are PPNG).