4
14. Inspections.—During the year 1922-23, Dr. B. B. Brahmachari of
the Presidency Circle checked 7,240 primary vaccinations and 2,500 re-vacci-
nations. His inspections were generally directed to examine whether the
provisions of the Bengal Vaccination Act were being regularly enforced.
The Assistant Director of Public Health of the Burdwan Circle inspected
1,183 primary and 297 re-vaccination cases while those of the Rajshahi and
Dacca Circles 681 and 1,757 primary cases, respectively. They inspected
towns and villages at random in order to ascertain the percentage of
unprotected children and the state of vaccination there. The District
Health Officers inspected 64,191 cases or 3.2 per cent. of the total cases.
Three of them, viz., the District Health Officers of Hooghly, Chittagong and
Faridpur, inspected over 5,000 operations, 8 from 2,000 to 5,000, 4 from 1,000
to 2,000 and the rest below 1,000. The District Health Officer of Birbhum
inspected only 102 cases.
The provincial vaccination inspecting staff inspected 781,632 cases or
39.04 per cent. of the total operations performed in the Presidency. Gener-
ally, each Assistant Superintendent of Vaccination inspected the work of all
the vaccinators under him once during the season and in some places twice.
15. General remarks.—Free vaccination has been introduced all over
the Presidency. All the District Boards, except only Darjeeling, have appoin-
ted District Health Officers, in accordance with the instructions contained in
the Local Government Circular No. 1270-74-San., dated the 3rd December,
1918. They have relieved the Civil Surgeons of their duties in regard to
vaccination and other public health works within the District Board areas.
The Bengal Vaccination Act was extended to the Darjeeling district in
March 1923. It is hoped that the new District Board will see its way to
appoint a District Health Officer shortly. The District Board of Nadia was
able to engage paid vaccinators only for the month of March and that of
Jessore from January, 1923. In Pabna, paid vaccinators were employed till
the end of January but for want of funds the District Board was obliged to
introduce licensed system of vaccination. The District Health Officer states
that the people were unwilling to pay fees under the licensed system and it
too proved a failure. Like the previous year, the Dacca District Board could
not engage paid vaccinators except for a few days but the Union Boards as
usual appointed 17 paid vaccinators.
The inspection work of some of the District Health Officers was not
satisfactory. The people in spite of the introduction of the free vaccination
system still object to be vaccinated and have not yet realised the benefit of
vaccination. To make the scheme a success, it is necessary that District
Health Officers should exercise their best tact and energy. No new recruit-
ment for the inspecting staff is now made from the old and inefficient stock
of vaccinators. Candidates who have passed the Sanitary Inspectorship Exa-
mination are being appointed on a temporary footing pending the proposed
transfer of the whole inspecting establishment to District Boards.
16. The prescribed statements are appended to this report.
CHAS. A. BENTLEY, M.B., D.P.H., D.T.M. & H.,
Director of Public Health, Bengal.
CALCUTTA,
The 22nd September 1923.
B. G. Press—4-10-1923—1630J & 1076J—607—P. G. S.