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From the 1st May to the 20th October 1883 the members of the vaccine
staff were employed in sanitary work, that is, visiting the different villages and
advising the inhabitants in the first principles of hygiene. On the 21st October
vaccine operations were commenced in the town of Jhelum, and the villages
in its immediate neighbourhood, and the vaccine staff were instructed not to
leave a tahsíl until all the unprotected were vaccinated. In this way work was
carried on successively in the tahsíls of Jhelum, Chakwál, Talagang and Pind
Dádan Khan. Lest a scarcity of lymph should ensue, one vaccinator was detained
in the station, whose duty it was to vaccinate daily one or more children.
Wishing to become acquainted with the manner in which vaccine work had
hitherto been carried on, and with the feeling of the inhabitants regarding
vaccination, the Civil Surgeon, Dr. McDonnell, made, from time to time,
visits to many of the villages of the district. In all he saw 835 villages and
inspected 8,881 children, in age varying from ten years to a few months ; of this
number he found 2,163 without a vaccine scar, and fully as many more with
merely a trace of scar. The tahsíls of Jhelum and Pind Dádan Khan are the
worst vaccinated, while the distant tahsíl of Talagang is, in this respect, far ahead
of other parts of the district. The great majority of those of two years and under
are fairly well vaccinated, but those of four years and upwards are, in many
instances, quite unprotected. The inhabitants, so far as the Civil Surgeon
could discover, show no antipathy to vaccination—in fact, wherever he went,
they were, one and all, abounding in praise of it. "The unprotected state
of the district ought then to be imputed," says the Civil Surgeon, "to
culpable neglect on the part of the vaccine staff." He instructed the staff to
vaccinate by scratch instead of puncture, and desired the supervisor to vaccinate,
in the villages he inspected, all those left unvaccinated by his staff; but, so far as
he was aware, no heed had been paid to either direction.
These remarks are unsatisfactory. The Deputy Sanitary Commissioner
will be directed to enquire into the matter, and report result to this office. The
Civil Surgeon, however, is empowered to inflict adequate punishment on any
member of the vaccine staff for disobedience of orders, and this he should have
done.
GUJRAT.
The vaccination establishment entertained, and the annual cost thereof,
during the years 1882-83 and 1883-84 are as below :—
Establishment
Native supervisor ... ... ...
1st class vaccinator ... ... ...
2nd „ „ ... ... ...
3rd „ „ ... ... ...
Total ...
1882-83
Number
...
2
2
7
11
Annual
cost
Rs.
...
540
288
840
1,668
1883-84
Number
...
2
2
7
11
Annual
cost
Rs.
...
540
288
840
1,668
Total vaccinations (including primary and re-vaccina¬
tions)
...
...
...
...
Successful cases ... ... ... ...
Percentage of successful cases ... ... ... ...
Persons successfully vaccinated per 1,000 of population
Average number vaccinated by each vaccinator
...
Cost of each successful case ... ... ... ...
1882-83
24,752
22,771
92.18
33.06
2,475.20
Re. 0-1-4
1883-84
26,793
25,193
94.17
36.57
2,679.30
0-1-1
The work performed
by the above establish-
ment during the two years
is shown in the margin.
The average number of operations returned by the vaccinators of this
district during the year is 26,793, being an increase of 2,041 over the number
vaccinated in the previous year. There were 25,193 primary cases returned as
successful against 22,771 in the previous year; and the percentage of success 94.17