2
Average cost per success-
ful case. Statement No. II.
7. During the year 1901-02, the average cost per successful case was
annas two and pies seven.
Aggregate number of
operations performed by
all establishments. State-
ment No. I.
8. There was a considerable falling off in the aggregate number of vaccine
operations in 1900-01, as compared with the previous year.
In 1901-02, the year under immediate notice, there was a
further decrease. Excluding, for the purpose of comparison,
the figures for the newly constituted district of Miánwáli
from the returns for 1901-02, and those of the frontier districts transferred to the
new Province from the statements of the previous two years, the total vaccinations
of the triennial period amounted in 1899-00 to 869,831, in 1900-01 to 713,951, and
in 1901-02 to 658,950. The corresponding figures in the previous three year
period, 1896-97 to 1898-99, were 833,211, 790,055, and 781,651, respectively.
There was thus a decrease of 162,185 operations during the triennial period
under notice, of which about one-third was in primary vaccinations and two-
thirds in re vaccinations. The figures for 1900-01 and 1901-02, however, do not
compare so unfavourably with those of 1897-98 and 1898-99 as they do with the
number vaccinated in 1899-00. The decrease in the last two years was due
mostly, as will be presently noticed, to causes over which the department had no
control.
Total vaccinations ac-
cording to sexes.
9. Of the total of 668,144 vaccinations in 1901-02, there were 369,550
among males and 298,594 among females. Kángra is the
only district in which more operations were performed on
the female than on the male population. The reason for this is, I believe, that
the people of Kángra do not object to young girls being revaccinated so much
as in other parts of the Province.
Decrease in the work of
the District Staff in 1900-
01 and 1901-02.
10. The District Staff.—The largest number of vaccinations were, as
usual, done by the vaccinators of the District Staff. As
stated in the notes on the vaccination returns for the last
year, there was a very large decrease in the total operations
performed by the District Staff in 1900-01 as compared with the previous
year, particularly in the districts of Hissár, Rohtak, Karnál, Umballa, Feroze-
pore, Lahore, Grurdáspur and Siálkot. The principal causes of the decrease
were a smaller number of children available for vaccination owing to a great
decrease in the birth rate, and unusual sickness which rendered a large number
of them unfit for the operation. In 1901-02 there was a further decline in the
number of vaccinations as compared with the previous year. The largest falling
off took place in the districts of Hoshiárpur, Umballa, Lahore and Ludhiána, the
decrease in these districts varying in round numbers from seven to twelve thou-
sand. The districts of Jullundur and Siálkot would show in 1901-02 a decrease of
about ten thousand and four thousand five hundred, respectively, if the work of
the special staff done in those districts in 1900-01 be added to that of the district
staff. In all the districts mentioned abové the decrease was attributed to the pre-
valence of plague. In noticing the decrease in vaccination work in the Hoshiárpur
District the Civil Surgeon states in his report:—" Plague is continuing to interfere
with vaccination as with all other district work, and this year is the worst we
have had since its commencement in 1897. Instead of returning forty and fifty
thousand of operations, we have come down to half that number now." Both the
Civil Surgeon and the Deputy Commissioner are of opinion that plague should
not be allowed to interfere with vaccination in future. The Commissioner of
the Jullundur Division is of the same opinion, but anticipates some difficulty in
the matter. "We should, no doubt," says Mr. Anderson," do our utmost to prevent
plague interfering with the ordinary administration, but how to carry this into
effect is the difficulty. Vaccination work has undoubtedly suffered much from
the prevalence of plague. Can any practicable measures be adopted to coun-
teract this next season ?" The reason is that it was considered previously that
vaccination should not be done in plague infected areas, as the people were in a
disturbed condition, and the presence of the vaccinators might lead to trouble.
Now as plague has become nearly general in the Province, and will recur from
year to year, we cannot leave the Province unprotected against small-pox, and,
as far as possible, vaccination must go on in plague infected areas,