12
deaths have ever been on the increase,
with remissions every third or fourth
year for two or three seasons and never
recording a rate below .08 per mille. It
is quite possible that the present epidemic
may simply be a fore runner of the appre-
hended pandemic and may subsequently
merge into it. To meet the pandemic a
proposal has been submitted to the local
Government for a provision of adequate
funds in the ensuing year's public health
budget to enable local authorities to carry
out under the supervision of the Public
Health Department intensive campaigns
of mass re-vaccination against the appre-
hended pandemic of small-pox. All local
bodies have been asked to strain every
nerve to put the public health organisa-
tion of the province on the best possible
footing so as to push forward vaccination
and re-vaccination as widely as possible.
The supervising rural health staff com-
posed of the Sanitary Inspectors in
charge of health circles and Vaccination
Inspectors and Sub-Inspectors were urg-
ed early in the season to perform vaccina-
tion with their own hands in epidemic
areas and their work as shown below,
except in a few instances, e.g., in Nadia
and Jalpaiguri, has not been negligible.
Intensive campaigns of vaccination and
re-vaccination were undertaken in Mid-
napur, Pabna, Murshidabad, Birbhum,
Rangpur, Dinajpur and Malda districts.
The Government staff was frequently
deputed to help the local bodies in their
vaccination campaigns. In addition to
both the Special Inspectors of Vaccina-
tion who were continually kept on the
move throughout the year, Babu Suren-
dra Nath Mazumdar, a Bengal Vaccine
depot assistant, operated upon 4,651
persons in the English Bazar Munici-
pality during the course of a very severe
outbreak of small-pox in Malda district
which starting in November 1927 lasted
throughout the year, affecting simulta-
neously about 284 villages and claiming
1,482 victims out of 6,875 persons attack-
ed from January to April 1928. The
campaign in Malda district is still going
on and 157,773 operations have been per-
formed there during the last four months
of the current year. A full report on
the epidemic and the steps taken to com-
bat it will form part of the next year's
vaccination report.
13. Percentage of success with gly-
cerinated lymph.—Glycerinated lymph
alone is issued now and the percentage
of success obtained with it is shown
below:—
1926-27*
1927-28
Primary vaccinations.
Total number of
operations per-
formed.
1,737,906
1,928,674
Successful.
1,654,041
1,814,715
Percentage of suc-
cessful cases in
which results were
known.
95.1
94.1
Revaccinations.
Total number of
operations per-
formed.
1,528,841
2,047,163
Successful.
798,577
1,092,249
Percentage of suc-
cessful cases in
which results were
known.
52.2
53.3
*Only with glycerinated lymph.
The highest percentage of success in
primary vaccinations (99.3) was obtained
in Khulna and in re-vaccinations (77.4)
in Dinajpur, the lowest percentages being
85.1 in Malda in primary cases and 32.7
in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in re-
vaccinations.
14. Inspections.—The
following
statement shows the details of inspection
by the various inspecting agencies :—
Inspecting agencies.
1.
2.
3.
District Health
Officers
and Civil Surgeons of Dar-
jeeling and Chittagong Hill
Tracts .. ..
Municipal Superintendents
of Vaccination and muni-
cipal Sanitary Inspectors
Assistant Superintendents
of Vaccination and rural
Sanitary Inspectors and
Assistant Health Officers
Percentage
of inspec-
tion to
total num-
ber vac-
cinated.
Primary vac-
cinations.
2.5
1.6
24.1
Revaccina-
tions.
2.2
2.7
11.1
Percentage
of cases
found suc-
cessful to
total num-
ber ins-
pected.
Primary vac-
cinations.
93.9
95.1
91.4
Revaccina-
tions.
72.1
26.8
53.3
Percentage of success repor-
ted by vaccinators.
94.1
Primary
55.8
Re-vaccination ..
(a) The District Health Officers of
Chittagong, Rangpur and Howrah ins-
pected 15.9, 13.5 and 11.7 per cent. res-
pectively of the total number of primary
cases vaccinated; while of the re-vaccina-
tion cases, the District Health Officer of
Rangpur inspected 24.9 per cent. In all
the other districts the percentage of ins-
pection by these authorities was very low.
In fact not a single inspection was done
by the District Health Officers of Nadia
and Bogra. The District Health Officer,
Jessore, inspected only .46 per cent. of
the primary cases, but no re-vaccinations.
The work of inspection on the whole has
been very perfunctory, except in the few
notable cases mentioned above.