8
TRIENNAL REPORT ON VACCINATION IN BURMA FOR THE YEARS 1908-09 TO 1910-11.
department is in its infancy. The vaccinators are mostly young, inexperienced men
in whom the Burmese mothers have no trust. The men are not reliable. Fourteen
permanent vaccinators and 3 temporary men have been dismissed, removed from
the service, or their services dispensed with during the 1910-11 season for falsifica-
tion, fraud, or acceptance of illegal gratification. Dr. Fink, Civil Surgeon,
Myaungmya, has rendered admirable service to the Department by carefully
investigating the work of the vaccinators in his district, leading to the dismissal of
4 permanent and 3 temporary vaccinators. The state of vaccination in Burma can
be elicited from the following reports. Vaccinator Maung Po Shin is said to have
been in league with inoculators with the result that children were inoculated and
vaccinated at the same time. Scabs from small-pox pustules were said to have
been mixed with the vaccine. The Civil Surgeon on examination found, between
the upper and lower vaccination insertions, punctures due to inoculation. Lymph is
also sold to inoculators to enable them to extort money by representing themselves
as Government vaccinators and by excusing the people (on payment) from
vaccination during the harvest season. At Shweoakchaung the headman reports
that a Burman received Rs. 10 for excusing the inhabitants from vaccination.
After receipt of the money he decamped leaving behind as a register of his work,
a headman's vaccination register 10 years old from Thabyechaung.
In Madawgyaung village the parents performed inoculation on their children
(happily unsuccessfully). They had no objection to vaccination but were too poor
to pay the vaccinator the fees he demanded. The statement that the people are
too poor to pay vaccinators is corroborated by Rev. Father Fargeton.
The appointment of private vaccinators who are entitled to receive fees,
and the absence of a distinctive uniform for public vaccinators has left the
people unable to recognize a Government vaccinator; this facilitates the
acceptance of illegal gratification by vaccinators. Further, the system of
appointing any person a Native Superintendent who has passed the necessary
examination, and of not promoting an old and trustworthy vaccinator to the post
has taken from the vaccinator all hope of promotion to a higher grade. It 'has
left the country with a class of Native Superintendents of Vaccination who are
young and inexperienced and in some cases unreliable, and who rise to a higher
grade not by merit but at the expiration of every five years' service.
During the 1910-11 season it was found necessary to dismiss one Native
Superintendent of Vaccination at Tharrawaddy and to suspend one Native
Superintendent at Pegu. The work of Native Superintendents of Vaccination
requires constant supervision. As has been previously pointed out Civil Surgeons
are practically prohibited to do much inspection of vaccination. Under the present
scheme one Native Superintendent must be provided for the inspection of every
three vaccinators. This is a costly proceeding and the results in my opinion will
not be commensurate with the expense entailed. In place of increasing the num-
ber of Native Superintendents of Vaccination it would be preferable from every
point of view to increase the number of Deputy Sanitary Commissioners to be
constantly on tours of inspection. At present one Deputy Sanitary Commissioner
has been appointed for the whole of Burma which covers an area of 2,36,738
square miles. The inspection of an area of this size, when the difficulties of
communication are taken into consideration, is an impossibility.
The Local Government is being addressed on the subject of improvement in
the vaccinators' prospects and the re-grading of the Native Superintendents of
Vaccination not only by length of service but also by merit. It is hoped that the
Secretary of State for India will sanction the appointment of one or more addi-
tional Deputy Sanitary Commissioners.
S. A. HARRISS, M.B., D.P.H., Major, I.M.S.,
Offg. Superintendent-General of Vaccination, Burma.
RANGOON, 31st May
1911.