Report on Vaccination in Bengal
for the year 1927-28.
I have the honour to submit the
following report on vaccination in Bengal
during the year 1927-28
I was in charge of the Vaccination
Bureau in the Provincial Public Health
Department throughout the year.
2. Strength of staff.—Owing to the
absorption in the rural
public health
organisation of some of the vaccination
inspecting officers, their number in rural
areas decreased from 143 in the previ-
ous year to 125; the aggregate number of
vaccinators employed was 1,535 against
1,596 in 1926-27. Dacca, Howrah and
South Suburban Municipalities employ-
ed three Inspectors while Midnapur
Municipality paid a temporary allowance
to two Sanitary Inspectors for super-
vising vaccination. The number of vac-
cinators employed by the mufassal muni-
cipalities increased from 144 to 157 dur-
ing the year under review. The Corpo-
ration of Calcutta retained the same
number of Inspectors (16) and vaccina-
tors (58) as in the preceding year. The
Provincial Department maintained two
Special Inspectors for executive and
research work.
3. General Vaccination Statistics.—
From the following statement showing the
number of operations performed in the
province during the year under review,
it appears that the primary vaccinations
increased by 10.7 per cent., re-vaccina-
tions by 33.2 per cent. and the total num-
ber of operations by 21.3 per cent. over
those in the previous year. The average
number of persons vaccinated by each
vaccinator was 2,145 against 1,761 during
the preceding year. 94.1 per cent. of
the primary and 53.3 per cent. of
the re-vaccination cases in which results
were known were reported to have been
successful as against 95.1 and 52.09 res-
pectively in 1926-27.
Categories.
Primary vaccinations
Revaccinations ..
Total ..
Number of operations
performed.
1926-27.
1,741,801
1,536,780
3,278,581
1927-28.
1,928,674
2,047,163
3,975,837
Increases
+ or
decreases
—.
+ 186,873
+ 510,383
+ 697,256
Percentage
of
increase +
or de-
crease —.
+ 10.7
+ 33.2
+ 21.3
4. Recess Vaccination.—In order to
cope with the small-pox epidemic during
the non-season period, recess vaccination
with intensive campaigns in some dis-
tricts had to be resorted to as in the pre-
vious year. A total of 1,162,525 opera-
tions including 335,901 primary and
826,624 re-vaccinations was performed
during this period against
393,875,
113,119 and 280,756 vaccinations respec-
tively, done during the corresponding
period of the previous year, giving an
increase of 195.1 per cent. in the total.
196.1 per cent, in the primary and 194.4
per cent. in the number of re-vaccina-
tions.
5. Vaccination in rural areas.—The
table below shows the number of opera-
tions performed in the rural areas :—
Districts.
Burdwan ..
Asansol Mining
Settlement.
Birbhum ..
Bankura ..
Midnapur ..
Hooghly ..
Howrah..
24-Parganas ..
Nadia ..
Murshidabad ..
Jessore ..
Khulna ..
Rajshahi ..
Dinajpur ..
Jalpaiguri ..
Darjeeling ..
Rangpur ..
Bogra ..
Pabna ..
Malda ..
Dacca ..
Mymensingh ..
Faridpur ..
Bakarganj ..
Chittagong ..
Noakhali ..
Tippera ..
Chittagong Hill
Tracts ..
Total for the
province ..
Vaccinations.
1926-27.
55,732
62,832
75,270
68,657
190,393
38,622
35,769
99,732
71,831
128,572
83,084
67,137
94,123
109,407
50,626
19,890
118,737
71,300
157,710
76,767
155,640
369,262
112,342
108,270
97,770
123,339
151,278
9,984
2,804,066
1927-28.
68,441
29,168
75,792
72,012
382,606
44,733
39,212
153,561
97,171
158,914
83,986
76,477
99,434
138,809
63,988
18,495
163,901
69,974
212,754
184,851
161,097
387,310
128,990
150,341
122,929
182,948
223,137
9,825
3,600,856
Differ-
ences.
12,709
33,664
522
3,355
192,213
6,111
3,443
53,839
25,340
30,342
902
9,340
5,311
29,402
13,362
1,395
45,164
1,326
55,044
108,084
5,457
18,048
16,648
42,071
25,159
59,609
71,859
159
996,790
Percen-
tage of
increase
+ or
decrease
—.
+ 22.8
—53.6
+0.7
+ 4.9
+ 100.9
+15.8
+9.6
+ 53.9
+ 35.3
+ 23.6
+ 1.1
+ 13.9
+ 5.6
+ 26.9
+26.4
-70
+ 38 0
-1.9
+ 34.9
+ 140.8
+ 3.5
+ 4.9
+ 14.8
+ 38.8
+ 25.7
+ 48.3
+ 47.5
-1.6
+ 28.4
Number
of
small-
pox
deaths
1927-28.
1,040
51
1,024
243
4,535
919
1,511
2,179
680
2,977
386
126
327
1,594
69
21
2,619
2,710
3,376
1,537
2,642
3,304
1,002
201
1,639
730
1,150
8
(Since
July
1927).
38,600
With the exception of the Asansol Min-
ing Settlement, Darjeeling, Bogra and
Chittagong Hill Tracts, all the districts
showed an increase in the total number of
their vaccinations. This increase and
decrease will be commented upon in the
next paragraph. Suffice it to say here
that the increase was most marked in
Malda and Midnapur districts where it
was 140.8 and 100.9 per cent. respec-
tively over the preceding year.
2