8
Districts which showed a decrease of over 10 per cent in this respect were
Nellore (—24.5), Rāmnād (—15.9), Anantapur ( — 14.4) and Ganjām ( — 10.5).
19. Vaccination in municipalities.—203,107 operations were performed during
1922-23 in the municipalities against 169,923 in the previous year, an increase of
33,184. The largest increases were recorded in the Municipalities of Madura
(+7,274), Cochin ( + 5,667), Madras (+4,214), Calicut (+3,792), Kurnool( + 3,314),
Negapatam (+ 2,515), Conjeeveram (+2,226),Masulipatam (+1,794),Rajahmundry
(+1,454), whilst there were large falls in Palacole (—1,468), Vizianagram ( — 983),
Bellary ( — 3,609), Salem (—509), Cuddapah (—591), Proddatur (—363), Palghat
(- 611), which is very regrettable, for smallpox was prevalent in this municipality
in an epidemic form, Coimbatore (— 363), Palni ( — 281), Pollachi ( —241) and
Sivakasi ( — 227) mainly attributable to the want of genuine interest in vaccina
tion on the part of the authorities concerned.
Among municipalities where primary vaccination was compulsory, marked
decreases of over 20 per cent occurred in Tiruppur ( — 63.8), Saidapet ( — 53.0),
Chirala (—43.6), Palacole (—39.5), Peddapur (—39.3), Ongole (—38.1), Adōni
( — 36.5), Negapatam (—36.1), Berhampur (—34.5), Bellary (—34.1), Palni
(—33.3), Rajahmundry (—29.1), Tadpatri ( — 27.5), Anantapur (—27.3), Chicacole
(—26.7), Cocanada (—26.2), Chidambaram (—26.1), Mangalore (—25.3),
Kodaikānal ( — 24.7), Sivakasi ( — 23.8), Mannārgudi ( — 22.9), Salem ( — 22.3),
Madura ( — 22.1), Tirupati ( — 21.6), Cannanore ( — 21.1) and Srīrangam
(—20.2).
The fall under this head was attributed by local bodies to the following
causes :—
(1) Increased birth-rate.
(2) Greater number of failures in vaccination.
(3) Increased attention paid to re-vaccination.
(4) Scant attention paid by the Municipal Councils on the ground that
vaccination is under the supervision of a medical officer.
(5) The general unwillingness to appoint qualified vaccinators. For
example, in the Chirala Municipality, not a single vaccinator was appointed for
months until a qualified man was forced upon it.
The real reason is that, where there is no Health Officer, municipal
vaccination is left in most cases entirely to the vaccination staff, who are badly
paid, are not supervised, and are on the slightest pretext employed on other duties.
The average Municipal Council, indeed, takes not the slightest interest in vaccina
tion work, and considers money spent thereon as wasted.
20. The percentage of success obtained by the use of different kinds of lymph
in the local fund and municipal areas is compared in the following table:—
Number of cases
excluding
unknown.
14,026
6,894
777,592
372,838
51,240
57,642
170
Area.
Government
...
Do. ...
Local Fund ...
Do. ...
Municipal ...
Do. ...
Do. ...
Kind of lymph.
Lanoline ... ...
Glycerine ... ...
Lanoline
... ...
Glycerine
...
...
Lanoline
...
...
Glycerine ... ...
Lanoline ... ...
Whence obtained.
King Institute of Preventive
Medicine.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Bangalore
...
...
...
Percentage of
success.
73.6
75.6
71.7
82.4
84.0
92.0
96.3
The percentage of success obtained with glycerine lymph in local fund
areas and municipalities was 82.4 and 92.0, respectively.
21. 26,526 deaths occurred from smallpox against 9,792 in the previous year.
The proportion of population protected and the incidence of smallpox in districts