ANNUAL REPORT ON VACCINATION IN THE
MADRAS PRESIDENCY FOR THE
YEAR 1926-27.
The administration of vaccination in rural areas still remains vested in taluk
and union boards, and another year's experience has only emphasized the
desirability, expressed in the last four vaccination reports, of transferring this
public health function to district boards. In G.O. No. 1415-P.H., dated 13th
August 1926, the Government suggested that this proposal should find a place in
the draft Public Health Act which was then under contemplation. In a subse
quent order, however (G.O. Mis. No. 509-P.H., dated 23rd March 1927) the
question of a Public Health Act was rejected in favour of amendment of the
existing Local Self-Government Acts, and it is sincerely to be hoped that the
draft amendments will include one dealing with the administration of
vaccination.
2. Glycerine lymph was used throughout the Presidency during the year
under report, and the results obtained have been uniformly satisfactory.
3. In accordance with a promise made by Government in the Legislative
Council, revised instructions in the use of vaccine lymph were issued in G.O.
No, 241-P.H., dated 4th February 1926, and no pains have been spared to ensure
that vaccinators adhere strictly to these rules.
4. Routine vaccination work was as usual suspended during the four hottest
months of the year. During this off-season, the vaccinators are expected to
check vital statistics and vaccination records and to enrol all unregistered births
and unprotected children is the respective registers. The detection work done
by the Health Staff continues to give surprising results in every district and
reveals the same old defects in the work of village headmen and Presidents of
Union Boards, on whom devolves the maintenance of the vaccination and vital
statistics records. In North Arcot and Coimbatore, as many as 15,000 unregis
tered and unprotected children were detected during the last off-season ; in South
Arcot and Malabar the numbers totalled nearly 12,000, and, in Nellore, 11,000.
Further comment as to the hazards run by the child populations of these districts
seems superfluous, although it must be added that the increasing interest taken
by Collectors and Revenue Officers in the registration of vital statistics has given
promise of improvement in the future.
5. In spite of the remarks made by Government in their review of last
year's report, many union boards still fail to maintain proper vaccination
registers, still refrain from rendering the necessary assistance to the vaccination
staffs and still fight shy of sanctioning the prosecution of defaulters. A few
specific instances will indicate the difficulties met with. Out of 31 union boards
in Tinnevelly District, no less than 22 are reported to have maintained their
unprotected registers in a most unsatisfactory and perfunctory manner, whilst
the union boards of Kulasēkarapatnam and Udangudi have no registers at all.
As regards Puliangudi, an important union in Sankaranāyinārkōyil Taluk with a
population of 18,437, the Health Inspector has reported that the unprotected
register was not maintained either by the village munsif or by the union board
president. When the union refused to take over the register, the village munsif
asked the President, District Board, to forward it to the union board, but he also
was given a flat refusal. Similarly, in Tanjore District, the union boards of
Tranquebar and Shiyāli definitely expressed their unwillingness to accept any
responsibility for vaccination, and the Unions of Tirutturaippūndi. Muttupet and
Vēdāranniyam in the same district gave so little help to the vaccinators during
their visits that large quantities of lymph were wasted. The state of vaccination
in such areas is in consequence deplorably bad, and unless the presidents of the
boards are made to realize the obligations imposed on them by statute, severe
smallpox epidemics are inevitable.