[Maximum limit 4 pages].
SHORT NOTES ON VACCINATION FOR THE YEAR
1914-15.
The following are brief notes on vaccination in Bengal for the year
1914-15.
2. Officer in charge of the Department.—Major W. W. Clemesha,
M.D., D.P.H., I.M.S., was in charge of the Department up to 22nd April 1914,
when he proceeded on leave. Major Fry, I.M.S., Special Deputy Sanitary
Commissioner, Malaria Research, Bengal, succeeded him and held charge
till 8th September when Major Clemesha who had been recalled to duty
on the breaking out of the present war, reassumed and held it to the end of
the year. Of the four Deputy Sanitary Commissioners attached to the
Presidency, Burdwan, Rajshahi and Dacca Circles, respectively, the two
Indian Medical Service Officers, Captain A. M. Jukes and Captain K. K.
Mukherji, were called away on Military duty early in October and no one was
appointed in their place. Of the two non-Indian Medical Service Officers,
viz., Dr. M. E. Sufi and Dr. R. B. Khambata, the latter was practically
taken away from the Department and placed in charge of the Jalpaiguri
Civil Surgeoncy with effect from 18th September 1914.
Thus only one
Deputy Sanitary Commissioner worked in the Department throughout the
year.
3. Strength of Staff.—In Calcutta the number of permanent inspec-
ting officers and operators was the same as in the year before, viz., 7 and 44.
In the provincial rural areas and mufassal municipalities and dispensaries,
etc., the inspecting staff and the operators numbered 123 and 1,311, and 5
and 143, against 123. 1,324, 4 and 129 respectively of last year.
From March a Special Inspector of Vaccination was temporarily appoint-
ed for three years to improve the state of vaccination in some of the Eastern
Bengal districts in which it was found to be very unsatisfactory.
4. General Operations.—Altogether 1,605,711 vaccinations were per-
formed in this Presidency during the year under report against 1,857,294
in the prece ling year, the number of persons vaccinated being 1,600,362
and 1,849,504 respectively. Of the total number of cases 1,139,384 were
primary and 466,327 revaccinations as compared with 1,575,510 and 281,784
during 1913-14, shewing a large decrease of 436,126 in the case of the
former and an increase of 184,543 in the case of the latter.
The
decrease is shared almost by all the districts and in the case of that
occurring in the districts in the Dacca and Chittagong Divisions, it is more
apparent than real as will be explained later on. Only 8 districts out of 28
showed an increase in the number of operations, mostly consisting of re-
vaccinations, viz., (1) 24-Parganas (77,747), (2) Calcutta (40,849), (3) Bakar-
ganj (14,695), (4) Howrah (2,559), (5) Rajshahi (2,241). (6) Darjeeling
(1,579), (7) Chittagong Hill Tracts (1,330) and (8) Hooghli (341). If however,
only primary vaccinations are taken into account, the increase would be notice¬
able in only two districts, it being the largest in Bakarganj. viz., 9,671 followed
by Calcutta with 837. Thus it will be seen that the decrease in primary
vaccination was almost universal, but it was strikingly large in the Eastern
Bengal districts and amounted to 82.056 in Mymensingh. 56,425 in Tippera,
49,483 in Faridpur, 34,623 in Dacca, 19,732 in Noakhali and 15,497 in Chitta-
gong, representing over 59 per cent. of the total decrease in the whole
Presidency.
Among Northern Bengal districts, Rangpur alone shows a
considerable falling off in this respect which amounted to 28,249, Midnapore
and Jessore being the worst offenders in this respect in Western Bengal.
It will be seen from the statement below that the decrease in primary
vaccinations noticed above in the districts in the Dacca and Chittagong
Divisions synchronises with the recent territorial redistribution whereby