2
headman of a village in Nuzvid Division did not report the occurrence of smallpox
which had been prevalent therein for nearly eight months when the vaccinator
detected the presence of the epidemic on the occasion of his routine visit. It is
to be regretted that the punishment awarded to the village headman consisted of
only a black-mark. The District Health Officer of Trichinopoly brings to
notice that, in at least four instances, smallpox was prevalent in a virulent form
and that the first report was received by him only after the almost complete
subsidence of the epidemic. These instances can be multiplied. As pointed out
in paragraph 18 of the Annual Report on Public Health for the year 1928,
considering the disastrous consequences arising from such belated intimations, it
is the duty of the revenue authorities to take necessary action to minimise these
delays by issuing warnings and imposing deterrent punishments on the worst
delinquents.
6. Partly as a result of the failure to send daily reports and partly due to
the errors in compilation, serious discrepancies continue to occur between the
epidemic mortality figures contained in the Collector's returns and the reports
forwarded to the Health Department by Tahsildars. The following are
illustrations :—
District.
Anantapur ... ... ... ...
Bellary ... ... ... ...
Chittoor ... ... ... ...
Kistna ... ... ... ... ...
East Gōdāvari ... ... ... ...
Period.
1928
1928-29
Do.
Do.
Do.
Deaths from smallpox.
Collector's
figures.
54
255
143
416
248
District Health
Officer's figures.
4
43
80
57
22
There is no justification for the occurrence of such variations. If the prompt
submission of the reports is insisted on and reasonable care is exercised in the
compilation of the returns, such discrepancies will cease to exist.
7. Besides municipalities, vaccination is at present compulsory practically
throughout the rural areas in 17 districts whilst it is so only in circumscribed
localities in the remaining eight districts, viz., South Arcot, Bellary, Coimbatore,
Cuddapah, East Gōdāvari, Malabar, Salem and Vizagapatam. It has been pointed
out in a previous Annual Report that it has been held in law that vaccinators in
non-compulsory areas are not public servants and instances of interference with
vaccinator's work and even stray cases of assault continue to be reported ; apart
from the legal aspect, the conduct of vaccination in non-compulsory areas has
been found by experience to be attended with considerable difficulty. The request
is therefore made once again that vaccination may be declared compulsory
throughout the Presidency. When it is already so in as many as 17 districts,
administrative inconvenience cannot be assigned (except perhaps in the Agency)
as a reason for postponing giving effect to this long pending proposal.
In the matter of enforcement of compulsory vaccination, a few District
Health Officers have brought to notice the reluctance of the presidents of local
boards to sanction prosecutions recommended by them ; as an instance of this
may be mentioned the Pattukkottai Taluk Board in Tanjore District, the presi
dent of which sanctioned only one out of 49 prosecutions put up by the Health
Officer in spite of the fact that smallpox is practically endemic in that Taluk
Board area. The attention of the presidents of local boards in general and of
the above Taluk Board in particular may be drawn. It has also been brought to
notice that the punishments imposed by the Magistracy in the case of vaccination
offences are very often ridiculously low and do not serve any useful purpose.
Rāmnād and Tinnevelly districts and Rajahmundry Municipality may be cited as
instances in this respect. It is requested that the Government will invite the
attention of the Collectors.
8. Until one or two decades back, the incidence of smallpox was confined
practically to children under 10 years of age; in recent years, however, on