Proceedings of the Hou'ble the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, in the Home, (Medical and Sanitary) Department
No.19, dated 8th January 1885.
READ—
The Report on Vaccination in the Punjab for the official year 1883-84, by Deputy
Surgeon-General H. W. BELLEW, C.S.I., Sanitary Commissioner, Punjab.
REMARKS.—The report on vaccination operations in the Punjab is
exceedingly full. The first quarter of the report contains a resumé of the
year's proceedings, the remaining three-fourths, extending over 44 pages,
gives a special report for each district of the Province. The Lieutenant-Gover-
nor wishes the district reports to be omitted in future, matters of general
or special interest being mentioned in the Provincial report, which must not
exceed in length 15 foolscap pages of printed matter.
2. The aggregate number of operations performed by all establishments
during the year was 633,062, being an increase of 133,365 over the number
vaccinated in the previous year. Classified according to sex, 338,315 males
and 294,747 females were vaccinated. The percentage of successful operations
in primary vaccinations was 91.25 as compared with 95.11 in 1882. About
two-thirds of. the total number of such vaccinations were performed upon
infants under one year of age, and one-fourth upon children between the
ages of one and six years. The number of re-vaccinations was only 8,189, but
this is nearly three times as many as in the previous year.
3. There has been an increase in vaccination operations in all but the
following districts, namely, Gurgaon, Karnál, Rohtak, Jhang, Muzaffargarh,
Pesháwar, and Hazára. In Karnál, Muzaffargarh, and Pesháwar the figures
are very nearly the same as in the previous year. In the other districts
named there has been a marked decrease. The increase is most marked
in the Kángra, Hoshiárpur, Amritsar, Siálkot, Gurdáspur, and Jhelum Districts.
In the district first named the number has risen from 5,039 to 18,637.
4. The general increase in the number of vaccinations is satisfactory,
and indicates that the Department is better organized, and that the work is
well supervised by Civil Surgeons and by the Sanitary Commissioner and
his two Deputies. It is also evident that the advantages of vaccination
are beginning to be felt, and that the prejudices against it are gradually
giving way. This view is emphasized by two facts noticed in the report,
namely—(1) the Amritsar Municipal Committee renewed the application to
have vaccination made compulsory, which has since been sanctioned by Govern-
ment; and (2) the Rája of Bashahr has lately asked for the services of a large
staff of vaccinators to carry on operations in his State. The list of persons
brought to notice by the Sanitary Commissioner for rendering assistance in this
Department sufficiently shows that public interest is being aroused, and that
many leading native gentlemen are beginning to believe that vaccination affords
the only check to the scourge of small-pox.
5. The table given in paragraph 6 of the report contains most valuable
information as to the extent of the supervision exercised over the work of
vaccinators throughout the Province, and should be continued in future years.
The Civil Surgeon of Rohtak inspected 10,814 vaccinations, and in the
following districts the Civil Surgeon in each case inspected 5,000 or more
cases ; the districts are named according to the proportion of work done—
Lahore, Jhelum, Ferozepore, Gujrát, and Delhi. In Mooltan, Gujrát, Amritsar,
and Jullundur native supervisors did a very large amount of work. The
percentage of successful cases actually verified by inspection was 95.18 in
inspections by Civil Surgeons, and 97.52 in the case of supervisors. In
point of success the results were exceedingly good in the districts of Kángra,
Hoshiárpur, Siálkot, and Gujránwála.
6. The Lieutenant-Governor approves of the instructions which have
been issued by the Sanitary Commissioner, upon Dr, O'Neill's suggestion,