8
6. Vaccinations performed by other
agencies.—(a) The following table com-
pares these operations during the two
trienniums:—
Years.
1926-27 .. ..
1927-28 .. ..
1928-29 .. ..
Total ..
Total of the previous trien-
nium.
Increase .. ..
Average increase ..
Primary
vaccina-
tions.
15,522
21,938
24,093
61,553
47,306
14,247
4,749
Revacci-
nations.
81,345
85,397
93,319
260,061
230,592
29,469
9,823
Total.
96,867
107,335
117,412
321,614
277,898
43,716
14,572
(b) The number of operations per-
formed during the year under review
and the previous year are shown
below:—
Agencies.
Tea gardens ..
Factories ..
Railways ..
Steamers ..
Dispensaries ..
Jails ..
Total ..
Primary vacci-
nations.
1927-28.
11,566
7,303
2,746
..
..
323
21,938
1928-29.
9,675
7,930
6,404
..
8
76
24,093
Increase + or
decrease—.
-
+
+
..
+
-
+
Revaccinations.
1927-28.
13,957
9,038
27,220
2,391
..
32,791
85,397
1928-29.
23,415
22,017
14,766
1,879
19
31,223
93,319
Increase + or
decrease—.
+
+
-
-
+
—
+
7. Protection afforded to infants.—
(a) An average of 256.0 per mille of the
surviving population of infants in the
province, 237.8 in rural and 524.7 in the
municipal
areas were
successfully
vaccinated during the present triennium
against 269.2, 252.6 and 517.5 respec-
tively in the previous one. In Calcutta,
however, the degree of protection was
1107.8 against 958.7 in the previous
triennium.
(b) In 1928-29, 216.9 per mille of all
the available infants were protected in
rural areas, 473.3 in the municipalities,
802.05 in Calcutta and 233.3 in the pro-
vince, against 246.7, 511.7, 856.8 and
261.4, respectively, in the previous year.
While the increase in the towns is
satisfactory, the decrease in the rural
areas is regretable. With the exception
of Burdwan. Bankura, Nadia, Jalpai
guri, Darjeeling, Dacca and Chittagong,
all the other districts have returned a
decrease in this proportion. The record
of the following three districts deserves
special notice:—
Mymensingh .. ..
Faridpur .. ..
Bakarganj .. ..
1927-28.
95.6
77.9
41.2
1928-29.
85.7
65.6
31.4
The reduction in Rajshahi and Jessore
from 487.1 and 334.1 in 1927-28 to 255.1
and 165.6 in 1928-29, respectively, is, to
say the least of it, very discouraging.
(c) The low degree of protection in
the rural areas has been attributed by
the District Health Officers generally to
the unwillingness on the part of the
parents or guardians to have their
children vaccinated under the age of one
year, in fact to 3 or 4 years in some dis-
tricts; and the vaccinators having no
knowledge of the actual age of infants in
a family are unable to trace them; for
the same reason no notice could be served
on their guardians under the Bengal
Vaccination Act for the enforcement of
primary vaccination. Now that the
Bengal Births and Deaths Registration
Act has been extended to rural areas,
there is every possibility of this difficulty
being overcome. Occasionally, it has
been reported to be due to the illness of
infants from malaria, measles and other
epidemic and endemic diseases.
8. Linear method of vaccination.—
This method has only been very recently
introduced in all the districts, and
sufficient time has not yet elapsed to
finally establish its superiority over the
old scarification method. Besides, the
vaccinators so long accustomed to the
old method have not yet become fully
used to the new technique. So far as
the consensus of opinion of the District
Health Officers goes, it has given a rate
of success as satisfactory as the old
method, to say the least of it, and what
is more, being less painful and compara-
tively free from complications, has been
favourably received by the general public.
The District Health Officers of Birbhum,
Jalpaiguri and Bakarganj, however,
still seem to favour the old method. In
Dinajpur, linear method was found to
be more successful in primary than in
revaccination cases, where scarification
was reported to have ensured better suc-
cess. The Bogra District Health Officer
obtained better results with incisions
"given like a cross in order to increase
the skin surface inoculated." I am con-
vinced that, in course of time, the linear