Short Notes on Vaccination in Bengal.
I have the honour to submit the fol-
lowing short Notes on vaccination in
Bengal for the year 1924-25.
2. Officer-in-charge of the Depart-
ment.—I returned from leave on the 9th
May 1924 and relieved Dr. Brahma-
chari, Assistant Director of Public
Health of the Presidency Circle, who
had been in additional charge of the
Vaccination
and
Vital
Statistics
Bureau during my absence on leave.
3. Strength of
staff.—With the
amalgamation of the Cossipur-Chitpur,
Maniktola and Garden Reach Munici-
palities with the Corporation of Calcutta
the number of vaccination inspecting
officers employed by the latter during
1924-25 increased from 14 to 17 and
that of the vaccinators from 48 to 58.
The Corporation also employed an addi-
tional staff of 6 inspecting officers and
44 vaccinators to cope with the epide-
mic of small-pox which prevailed from
November 1924 to May 1925. In
mufassal municipalities, the number of
inspecting officers decreased from 7 to
3, that of the vaccinators remaining the
same, viz., 143. In the rural areas of
the Presidency, the number of inspect-
ing officers was 131 against 127 in the
previous year, the increase being due to
additional Inspectors appointed by the
District Board of the 24-Parganas.
The total number of vaccinators em-
ployed under the local bodies excluding
Calcutta was 1,474 during 1924-25 as
against 1,457 in the pervious year.
4. General operations.—A total of
2,662,966 operations was reported to
have been performed on 2,661,062 per-
sons during the year against 2,057,724
operations on 2,054,893 persons during
the preceding year, showing an increase
of 605,242 or 29.4 per cent. operations.
Of these 1,655,201 operations were pri-
mary and 1,007,765 re-vaccinations
against 1,590,576 and 467,148 respec-
tively during 1923-24. The primary
vaccinations during the year thus in-
creased by 4.06 per cent. and re-vacci-
nations by 115.7 per cent. over those of
the preceding year. The average num-
ber of operations performed by each
vaccinator in rural and municipal areas
was 1,492 during the year under report
against 1,195 during the previous year.
5. Vaccination in districts.—During
the year under review all the districts in
this
Presidency,
except
Tippera,
Rangpur and Dinajpur showed an in-
crease in the total number of operations in
comparison with that of the preceding-
year. The increase was most noticeable,
in Calcutta (257,253), Burdwan (37,962),
Dacca (33,046), Mymensingh (31,537),
Birbhum (26,699), Bakarganj (25,911),
Khulna (25,032), Jessore (22,941), Raj¬
shahi (22,784), Malda (22,432), 24-Par-
ganas (19,427), Pabna (17,421), Hoogh-
ly (16,419), Howrah (15,159), Faridpur
(12,517), Nadia (12,425), Midnapore
(10,769), Noakhali (10,364) and Chitta-
gong (8,056), while in six other districts
(viz., Bankura, Darjeeling,
Bogra,
Chittagong Hill Tracts, Jalpaiguri and
Murshidabad) it was below 5,000. In
Calcutta, the increase was due to the
prevalence of small-pox in an epidemic
form during the year. The same rea-
son coupled with the fact of the intro¬
duction of free vaccination explain the
increase in other districts. In the Burd-
wan district an additional factor ex-
isted in the shape of the small-pox regu-
-ations enforced in the Asansol Mining
Settlement. Able supervision of the
work by the District Health Officers with
the assistance of the Provincial vaccina-
tion inspecting staff is no less responsi-
ble for this satisfactory outturn of
work.
Government also contributed a
sum of Rs. 25,000 in addition to the
usual recurring grant of Rs. 25,000 for
the prevention of small-pox epidemic
in the rural areas in the Presidency
which enabled the District Boards to en-
gage an increased number of vaccina-
tors. In Bankura, for want of funds,
an attempt
was made to
introduce
licensed system of vaccination but as it
proved to be highly unpopular, the Dis-
trict Board had to re-introduce free
vaccination with the result that there
was an increase of 4,594 operations
there during the year. Tippera, which
showed an increase of 7,541 operations
during 1923-24, had a decrease of
24,076 operations
during 1924-25.
The District Health Officer attributes
this decrease to (1) the reduced number
of vaccinators engaged by the District
Board, (2) the flood which rendered
many people homeless and dragged