No. 1952-A. OF 1880,
Remarks by the Resident at Hyderabad on the Report of Vaccination in the
Hyderabad Assigned Districts for the year 1879-80.
THE work of the Vaccination Department has hitherto been noticed in the
Sanitary Report, but is now reported on separately for the sake of convenience,
with the sanction of the Government of India, as the vaccination year ends on
31st March, and the sanitation year on 31st December.
Dr. Little has shown in the present clear and interesting record results which
the Officiating Commissioner rightly characterizes as " on the whole very
satisfactory." An increase of 28 per cent., as compared with the previous year in
the number of persons vaccinated, and of 36 per cent. in the number of successful
cases, is exhibited; while the percentage of successful cases to the total number of
operations rose from 90.5 to 94. The average cost per head for each successful
case "was four annas three pies or one anna ten pies less than last year." The
total cost of the department was Rs. 16,469, which also is less than the total cost
for 1878.
2. The percentage of cases of which the result was " unknown" is 5.4, and
this constitutes the least satisfactory feature of the general return. Such cases, it is
manifest, should be deducted from the total vaccinated before taking the percent-
age of success, but Dr. Little points out that this was not done in former years,
and so Berar was unfairly weighted in a comparison with other provinces.
In para. 44 of his Report for 1878 the Sanitary Commissioner wrote :—" I
purpose next season to employ a few head vaccinators to examine work within
defined areas in each district." It is not precisely stated that this intention was
carried out, but the Resident hopes it will not be abandoned.
3. In reviewing the Sanitary Report for 1878, the Government of India
remarked that " means should be devised by which the efficiency of the vaccination
should be tested by the current history of small-pox." The figures given in para.
83 of the Report bear upon this point, and, so far as they go, confirm Dr. Little's
hypothesis that "the decline in the mortality" (from small-pox) "in 1877-78
and 1879, as compared with 1872-73-74 must be attributed to the benefits
derived from vaccination." The cycle of observation however must be extended,
and the registration of our vital statistics improved before any safe conclusion can
be arrived at. Revised rules for the registration above mentioned have been framed
by the Commissioner, and are now under examination by district officers, who have
been, asked to report on them,
4. In para. 16 the strength of the vaccination establishment employed is
detailed. It falls short of the sanctioned complement, and of what it was in the
previous year, when less work was done, by 5 vaccinators and 2 apprentices.
In his Report the Superintendent has omitted to mention this deficiency, which
calls for some notice. The Native Superintendents are, it is observed, well reported
on; but the vaccinators are said—with reference to the sanitary inspection work
required of them, in addition to their own proper duties—to be " as a body unedu-
cated and ignorant of the simplest sanitary rules." Dr. Little proposes to raise
the standard of education by not admitting men into the department who have
not passed a certain prescribed test.
The conduct of the vaccinators was generally good. Fines, reductions, and
dismissals were fewer than in 1878.
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