3
1910, the Sanitary Commissioner advised that the staff of vaccinators should be
doubled, but no steps have been taken to give effect to this; the number of vaccina-
tors remains the same, and the number of operations is decreasing. The attention
of the district authorities will be drawn to this.
9. Composition and strength of the inspecting staff.—The inspecting staff remain-
ed the same during the year under report as in the previous year, viz., 8 Inspectors
and 18 Sub-Inspectors in the Provincial cadre, and 1 Inspector in the Manipur
State.
From 1st April 1913, a revision in the grades of the Inspectors and Sub-In-
spectors, and an increase of two additional supernumerary Sub-Inspectors has been
sanctioned.
10. Verification by the inspecting staff.—Civil Surgeons inspected 5.54 and
2.45 per cent. of the primary vaccinations and re-vaccinations, respectively, during
the year under report against 70.80 and 4.1 in 1911-1912. The Subordinate Inspect-
ing Staff inspected 60.26 and 49.80 per cent. of the primary vaccinations and re-
vaccinations, respectively, during the year under report, against 58.10 and 36.59 in
1911-1912.
The Deputy Sanitary Commissioner inspected 2,000 operations, of which 99 per
cent. were successful.
11. Working of the Compulsory Vaccination Act.—In the towns in which the
Vaccination Act is in force 1,294 or 62 per cent. of the total number of children
under one year available for vaccination were successfully vaccinated against 79 per
cent. of the year 1911-12.
In the town of Sylhet, only one-fourth of the available children were vaccinated
This unsatisfactory result is reported to be due to the fact that on account of
prevalence of small-pox in the town, the vaccinator was largely engaged in persuad-
ing people to accept re-vaccination. He performed 1,132 cases of re-vaccination,
against 277 of the previous year. The attention of the Civil Surgeon and the
Municipal Commissioners will be drawn to this failure to carry out primary vaccina-
tion, a defect which, if not speedily rectified, may have a serious effect in the health
of the town in the near future. In the towns of Silchar, Gauhati, Tezpur and Sibsagar
only half and in Jorhat and Shillong only one-third of the available children
were successfully vaccinated. This cannot be considered as satisfactory, and the Civil
Surgeons concerned are being asked to impress upon the vaccination staff the necessity
of paying more attention to this important branch of their duty in the next vaccin-
ation season. The inspecting staff should obtain from the Registrar of Births, the
list of children born with their address and see that notices in the prescribed
form have been served ont he guardians and all available children have been
successfully vaccinated.
In the town of Silchar, 11 persons were prosecuted under the Act, of whom 8
were convicted and fined. There were 3 prosecutions in the town of Gauhati; all were
convicted and fined.
Fifty notices were served in the town of Dhubri and 88 in Goalpara. There
were 3 prosecutions in the former and two in the latter, the results of which are not
yet known.
12. Vaccine Depôt —The total cost of the depôt was Rs. 22,944-7-4, against
Rs. 23,468-1-11 in 1911-1912. The number of tubes loaded during the year was
1,819,859, against 1,716,938 of the previous year, showing an increase of 102,921.
The average cost per tube during the year was 2.4 pies.
Of 962 calves inoculated, lymph was taken from 833 only. There were 38
failures and lymph was not taken from 91, either on account of illness or because
the vesicles were not satisfactory.
This depôt continues to supply lymph to the Eastern Bengal districts. The
quality of the lymph is reported to be excellent.
The plan and estimates for a new vaccine depôt are under preparation in the
Sanitary Engineer's office.
13. Cost of the Department.—The total cost of the Department was Rs. 66,342-10-
8, against Rs. 64,501-6-1 of the previous year, showing an increase of Rs. 1,841-4-7.
Of the former amount, Rs. 45,209-12-3 was paid from provincial funds,
Rs. 19,213-8-5 from local funds, Rs. 1,060-11-0 from municipal funds, and Rs. 858-11-0
by Native States.