Vaccination.—
Triennial report on vaccination in the
Bombay Presidency for the years
1914-15, 1915-16 and 1916-17.
GOVERNMENT OF BOMBAY
GENERAL DEPARTMENT.
Resolution no. 7781
Bombay Castle, 5th November 1917.
Letter from the Sanitary Commissioner for the Government of Bombay, no. V.X.N.
—8870, dated the 3rd October 1917—
Submitting the triennial report on vaccination in the Bombay Presidency for the years
1914-15, 1915-16 and 1916-17.
RESOLUTION.—There was a further rise during the triennium in the
number of primary vaccinations, the average annual figures being 717,203,
which exceed those of the two previous triennial periods by 50,706 and 12,776
respectively. This increase was however entirely due to an improvement in
the number of vaccinations carried out in local fund areas and Native States.
In municipal areas and cantonments the number fell off by 9 per cent., a result
which the Governor in Council regrets to observe is attributed by the Sanitary
Commissioner partly at least to the activities of anti-vaccinating pro-
pagandists.
A slight diminution in the number of re-vaccination may be
regarded with less concern, as the value of re-vaccination is not yet fully
understood and the number of operations fluctuate largely with the prevalence
of small-pox.
Thus in the three years ending 1914 there were 71,003 persons
on the average re-vaccinated each year, while in the three years under review
the number sank to 67,409. In the former period the greater prevalence of
small-pox was shown by an average annual total of 7,048 deaths from the
disease, whereas in the latter period small-pox claimed each year an average
of 2,648 victims only. The high percentage of successful operations in known
cases was fully maintained.
2. Except in Bombay City and a few Native States the use of
glycerinated vaccine was universal, the number of doses issued from the
Belgaum Vaccine Institute being well over a million in each year of the
triennium.
The case and insertion success rates with this form of vaccine
have now risen to the high percentage of 99.20 and 95.76 respectively, while
the success rate in Sind reached 98.07 per cent. in the last year of the triennial
period.
These figures go far to refute the assertions that have been
authoritatively made that it is impossible to obtain successful results with
glycerinated vaccine in hot climates. It is still a remarkable fact, for which
no explanation has been offered, that the success rate is considerably lower in
Bombay City than in the presidency generally.
3. Compulsory vaccination was introduced during the triennium into
the cities of Hyderabad and Aden and the Deolali Cantonment.
The
Governor in Council notices with regret that the anti-vaccination agitation
that is being carried on by irresponsible persons in the province of Sind has
had a bad effect upon the percentage of successful operations among children
under one year of age. In the three towns of Sukkur, Rohri and Larkana
the percentage dropped from 92 in the year 1913-14 to 83 in 1915-16 and 70
in 1916-17, while in Hyderabad City it was as low as 41. In Karachi on the
other hand, where a more enlightened attitude prevails, the percentage of
successfully vaccinated children was approximately 98 in the concluding year
of the triennium, and in Bombay and Ahmedabad the percentages were even
better.
A hope may be expressed that the unimpeachable figures quoted by
Colonel Hutchinson in his annual report on the sanitary administration of
L Genl 816