6
4. Vaccination in Rural Areas.—
Compared with the preceding year's
work, some districts performed
more
and some a lesser number of vaccina-
tions during the year, the increases
being shared mostly by Pabna (97,724),
Murshidabad (45,777), Birbhum (26,623),
Faridpur (26,400), Rangpur (25,077),
Midnapur (19,804), Malda (18,168),
Rajshahi (17,434), Bogra (11,618) and
Dinajpur (10,915), while the decreases
occurred chiefly in Burdwan (37,460),
Chittagong
(20,029),
24-Parganas
(17,080), Howrah (14,428) and Dar-
jeeling (9,751). Both primary and re-
vaccinations increased in Pabna, Bir-
bhum, Faridpur, Rangpur, Bogra and
Bakarganj, while they decreased in
Burdwan, 24-Parganas,
Darjeeling,
Chittagong, Howrah, Bankura and the
Chittagong Hill Tracts. In Dacca,
Mymensingh, Tippera and Nadia, pri-
mary vaccinations increased but re-vac-
cinations decreased, while in the other
ten districts the position was the re-
verse. The increases in both classes of
vaccinations, particularly
re-vaccina-
tions were the direct results of the small-
pox epidemics in several districts. The
Burdwan District Health
Officer's
explanation of the marked decrease in
his jurisdiction as attributable to the
large number of vaccinations having
been already carried out during the pre-
ceding two epidemic years is untenable,
because of the severer epidemic of small-
pox during the year 1926-27. Vacci-
nation might, however, have suffered by
the reported diversion of vaccinators to
do anti-cholera work. The Civil Sur-
geon of Darjeeling
attributes the
decrease in his district to the thorough
vaccination in previous years of the
coolies employed on the tea-gardens and
also to the absence of the necessary sti-
mulus of a small-pox epidemic in the
tea-gardens during the year 1926-27.
The presence of cholera and the low
small-pox mortality are reported to
account for the decrease in Chittagong
and the 24-Parganas, while Howrah
puts it down to the milder prevalence
of small-pox. The setback in the 24-
Parganas and Howrah cannot be consi-
dered to be satisfactory, all the more
because of their contiguity to Calcutta,
which suffered most severely from
January to May 1927, as it is notorious
that the two adjacent districts are the
first to be affected with any epidemic
which springs up in Calcutta.
The poor increase in the aggregate
number of vaccinations is
practically
negligible, in view of the continued pre-
valence of small-pox since December
1924 throughout the province, parti-
cularly in the northern, southern and
western portions.
5. Vaccination in Municipalities.—
The total number of vaccinations per-
formed in Calcutta during 1926-27 was
216,700, of which 29,162 were primary
and 187,538 re-vaccinations, against a.
total of 149,322 vaccinations (including
25,607 primary and 123,715 re-vacci-
nations) during the preceding year. In
mufassal Municipalities, 160,948 vacci-
nations (including 67,938 primary and
93,010 re-vaccinations) were performed
during the year, against 167,238 (66,276
primary and 100,962 re-vaccinations)
during the preceding year, showing a
decrease of 6,290 vaccinations in the
aggregate and of 7,952 in re-vaccina-
tions. The decline in re-vaccinations is
deplorable, in view of the severity of
small-pox during the year under review.
6. Vaccinations performed by Other
Agencies.—The following comparative
statement shows the number of vaccina-
tions performed by other agencies :—
Agencies.
Tea-
gardens
Factories
Railways
Steamers
Dispen-
saries
Jails
..
Total
Primary.
1926-
27.
5,203
8,605
1,424
..
15
275
15,522
1925-
26.
9,194
8,769
1,761
..
..
32
19,756
Re-vaccinations.
1926-
27.
2,349
28,742
8,139
9,534
16
32,565
81,345
1925-
26.
15,368
17,154
10,133
5,935
..
30,812
79,402
Total.
1926-
27.
7,552
37,347
9,563
9,534
31
32,840
96,867
1925-
26.
24,562
25,923
11,894
5,935
..
30,844
99,158
Out of 7,552 vaccinations performed in
tea-gardens, Darjeeling reported 5,972
and Jalpaiguri 1,580, against 17,052
and 7,510 in the previous year. The
Civil Surgeon of Darjeeling states that
the decrease was due to the whole local
labour force having been thoroughly
vaccinated and re-vaccinated during the
previous year, owing to the prevalence-
of small-pox in some of the tea-gardens
from April to June, 1925. The case of
the Jalpaiguri tea-gardens is, however,
different. In spite of the
criticisms
made in these reports year after year and
in spite of the attempts made by
the
Public Health Department, Jalpaiguri
with its numerous tea-gardens reported
only 1,580 operations during the year.
Railway vaccinations also decreased by