REPORT ON VACCINATION IN ASSAM.
9
Statistics.
At Gauháti.
28. The foregoing table condenses all the information which has been obtained. In
Gauháti alone does there appear to have been proper attention
paid from the beginning. The number of children said to be
on the register (1,549) is actually the numbers which have been vaccinated in the three
years. This is wrong. Every registered birth should be transferred to the register, and
the appropriate column subsequently filled in when vaccination has been successfully
performed. During the last season 66 notices were served on parents, 14 prosecutions
instituted when these were disregarded, and in all either vaccination performed or
a small fine levied.
Dibrugarh.
29. At Dibrugarh the Act has apparently only come into force this last year. The
register is imperfect. Vaccination was fairly general,
being in a ratio corresponding to the population nearly equal
to Gauháti, and the prosecutions and convictions nearly alike.
Dibrugarh Cantonment.
30. In the Dibrugarh Cantonment the figures are
insignificant.
Sylhet
31. From Sylhet the Civil Surgeon writes—
" The Compulsory Vaccination Act has never been put in force here and no prosecutions under
it have been deemed necessary. The children of the station are almost completely protected; but as the
population is a very nomad one, I can furnish no statistics. The number of vaccinations performed
here in future must be small, as they are limited to the number of births, and this is a reason why a
municipal vaccinator appears to me unnecessary."
It is true only 322 births were registered in the town of Sylhet during 1884, and
that is not sufficient work for one vaccinator; but the Vaccination Act covers the whole
area of the municipality; the population in 1881 is given as 14,407, and at the low birth-
rate of 35 per thousand there should be more than 500 children born annually requiring
vaccination. The only information to hand is that 2,652 children have been put on the
register since the Act came into force; and that of these 2,333 have been vaccinated.
Conclusion.
32. It is clear that so far the Act remains almost a dead letter. The prosecutions
are the practical test. It is, perhaps, best that it should
remain so for the present. A Hospital-Assistant's time
cannot be given up to instituting nominal prosecutions; and anything like rigour is to be
deprecated. I should have supposed that compulsory vaccination would be one of the
latest tasks of municipal government.
Review of the season.
33. In reviewing the season's operations as a whole, there are two points which
stand out prominently and deserve a closing notice, viz., the
statistical accuracy and the genuine protective character of the
vaccine pock. In respect of both, there was expressed last year a doubt which has been
confirmed by later observation.
The doubts regarding actual numbers
34. The numbers registered have increased so largely of late years that it seems
difficult to understand how the actual figures, which are
double those of three years ago, can now be properly
checked by the Civil Surgeons, who are the only reliable Superintendents. It is
incumbent on them to have monthly registers prepared punctually and examined; and to
have thorough inspections of each case in every village which they may visit on that
duty.
The protective value of the bulk of vac-
cination in Assam.
35. As for the quality of the vaccination, the narrative of Mr. McNaught's inspection
in Appendix B discloses how much ignorance and careless-
ness on the part of half-instructed subordinates have to be
guarded against. A Civil Surgeon is not responsible for the universal purity of the lymph,
but at least the original supply should be established pure under his own eye by selected
primary operations in the Sadr station. And the periodical arrivals of tubes from other
provinces should not be distributed at large, but only to the best qualified and experienced
vaccinators. For the rest, in each plains district one native inspector at least is needed.
I have insisted on the necessity of this subordinate being specially selected; and it cannot
be too often repeated that it is alike unfair to the people and to the system to leave the
power to perpetuate suffering and obloquy in the hands of an incapable working
staff.
More permanent vaccinators urgently called
for.
Comparison with Bengal.
36. Lastly, in the matter of finance, I cannot but admit the force of so many repre-
sentations which reach me as to the injury which follows the
system of employing temporary vaccinators; the dishearten-
ing of Civil Surgeons in seeing reliable and experienced operators leaving, and the harm to
the people of placing vaccination year by year in new and untrained men. If the work is to
increase and spread on a genuine basis, something must be
done before long to remedy this. In reply to enquiry on
D