Proceedings of the Hon'ble the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab in the Home (Medical and Sanitary)
Department,—No. 341. dated 23rd July 1892.
READ—
The Sanitary Commissioner's Note on Vaccination in the Punjab for the official year
1891-92, dated June 30th, 1892.
REMARKS.—The Lieutenant-Governor has but few remarks to make on the
Sanitary Commissioner's Note. In the Province generally 54.21 per cent. of revacci¬
nations are said to have been successful, but in the case of Cantonments it is stated
that 80.44 per cent. of revaccinations were attended with success. This high
percentage calls for explanation. Elsewhere His Honor has found that large
variations in the percentage were due to differences of opinion as to what should
be considered a successful revaccination.
2. Sixty-seven thousand five hundred and fifty-four fewer operations of
revaccination were performed by the district staff than during the previous year.
The decrease was due to the fact that, as it had been found that vaccinators were
in the habit of revaccinating children who had been vaccinated only one or two
years previously, orders were issued that no person should be again vaccinated
until seven years had elapsed since the previous successful vaccination. The
Lieutenant-Governor considers that it is well that this order has been issued ;
otherwise our vaccination operations would become to a certain extent a sham, as
vaccinators would, with a view to increasing their tale of work, go on vaccinating
over and over again the children of such parents as felt no objection to vacci-
nation.
3. Statement I appended to the Sanitary Commissioner's Note, showing
the number of operations performed in each district, gives some curious results.
In the Delhi District, with an average population of 492 persons per square mile,
and one vaccinator to every 53,000 souls, the average number of vaccinations
performed by each operator was 985.75. In Dera Gházi Khan, with 71 persons
to the square mile, and one vaccinator to 57,000 persons, each vaccinator was
able to perform on the average 4,070.43 operations
In Hazára, with one vacci-
nator to 238,000 persons, and 170 persons to the square mile, each vaccinator
performed on the average 5,622 operations. The Lieutenant-Governor would
have supposed that in the scantily populated districts it would be more natural to
find a smaller number of vaccinations performed by each operator, as more time
would be spent in getting from one populated place to another : this would
especially be the case in a hilly district like Hazára, where travelling is more
difficult than elsewhere. At any rate, if the figures cited above are at all correct,
and the vaccinators in Dera Gházi Khan and Hazára were in fact able to perform
so many operations, those in Delhi must have been comparatively idle, or too
many were employed. The provincial average, however, being 2,717.52 operations
per vaccinator, it seems not improbable that the figures given for Hazára and
Dera Gházi Khan have been exaggerated.
ORDER.—Ordered that the above Remarks be communicated to the Sani-
tary Commissioner, published in the Punjab Government Gazette, and forwarded
with the Note as usual to the Government of India in the Home Department.
By order of the Hon'ble the Lieutenant-Governor,
H. MAUDE,
Junior Secretary to Government, Punjab.
Punjab Government Press, Lahore—25-7-92—291.