Fatal Island: Malaria in Hong Kong

Abstract

<p>Despite Hong Kong’s association with infectious disease, it is easy to<br>overlook the long presence and significant impact of malaria on its history.<br>The experience is complex, personal and of particular interest because it<br>spanned key developments in both understanding and controlling the disease.<br>High mortality shaped Hong Kong’s emergence, dictating the urban layout<br>of the new colony and driving local production of scientific and medical<br>expertise. Yet malaria eradication followed a discontinuous course, dependent<br>on step-wise progress in scientific knowledge, medical expertise, colonial<br>government policy, targeted intervention, public education and surveillance.<br>As an emerging disease ‘hotspot’, these factors remain relevant in twenty-<br>first century Hong Kong as inherent features of local infectious disease<br>preparedness planning. This paper explores the complex socio-ecological<br>relationship between malaria, people and the environment and examines<br>malaria’s fluid identity in the Hong Kong context. Focusing on three key<br>phases in Hong Kong’s experience of malaria it examines how this evolving<br>identity influenced attempts to control the disease and contends that the need<br>to make Hong Kong a successful colony was both a driver of malaria and the<br>means by which eradication was eventually achieved.</p>