NOTES AND STATISTICS
ON
VACCINATION IN BURMA
FOR THE YEAR 1903-04.
Statement No. I.
1. Establishment.—The vaccination establishment employed throughout the
year consisted of 224 vaccinators as compared with 213 in the previous year.
The increase was in the districts of Amherst (2), Mergui (1), Bhamo (1),
Katha (1), Lower Chindwin (3), Upper Chindwin (2), Pakôkku (3), Meiktila (1),
and Myingyan (2). The staff was reduced in the Thôngwa (4) and Thatôn (1)
districts.
The staff of Native Superintendents of Vaccination remained the same.
The establishment is badly educated, badly paid, and badly disciplined. The
Director of Public Instruction is of opinion that men who have studied up to the
7th standard (Vernacular) in the local schools would take service in the Vaccine
Department if the pay was better and a stipend offered to pupils learning the
work. Unless the pay is improved the status of the Vaccinator is not likely to
improve. It is, however, essential that the staff should be efficiently supervised,
and is the one indispensable condition to the successful working of the Vaccina-
tion department. In most districts Civil Surgeons cannot find time or opportuni-
ty to make tours into the interior of their district off main lines of communication,
and they require trustworthy assistants in order to secure adequate and efficient
work as well as reliable returns. Hospital Assistants are not available for these
posts, and such Native Superintendents as have been employed (12 districts out
of 39 employ Superintendents) are of the vaccinator class.
Statement No. I.
2. General Operations.—The total number of operations performed in the pro-
vince during the year was 398,634, or an increase of 28,124 over last year's
figures. This increase was pretty general in each division, save in Mandalay
and the Chin Hills where there was a falling off in work of 2,281 and 487 respec-
tively. This falling off occurred in every district of the Mandalay Division, except
Katha and is generally attributed to an unhealthy year causing more sickness
amongst children.
Statement No. I.
3. Primary Vaccination.—Of the total number of operations 375,798 were
primary, or an increase of 27,791 as compared with last year.
The ratio of success attained was 87.20 against 87.14 in 1902-1903.
Statement No.I.
4. Revaccinations. —The revaccinations performed numbered 22,836 with an
increase of 333 over the previous year's figures. The percentage of success was
54.97 against 46.83 in the year preceding.
Statement No. I.
5. Age and sex.—Of the total vaccinated, 207,861 were males and 190,773
females. District returns show no apparent reason why the male population
should have been protected in excess of females by over seventeen thousand.
Of the successful primary cases 78,266 were infants under one year of age,
178,929 children of between one and six, and 62,840 over and beyond six years.
Out of every 100 persons successfully vaccinated 24 were infants, 56 chil-
dren under six, and 20 over six years and adults. The percentage of unknown
cases to total vaccinated was 2.34.
Appendix B.
6. Infantile protection.—The percentage of infants successfully vaccinated,
in the province as a whole, estimating the births at 40 per 1,000 of population,
was 18.67 as compared with 18.77 in 1902-1903.
Of the 156,111 children under one year available for vaccination, a figure
arrived at by deducting the deaths under one year of age from the total births,
12.1 per cent. are shown to have been successfully vaccinated.