No. 2340.
FROM
COLONEL C. W. CARR-CALTHROP, M.D., Ch.D., I.M.S.,
Principal Medical Officer and Sanitary Commissioner, Assam,
To
THE SECRETARY TO THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF ASSAM.
Shillong, the 4th June 1900.
SIR,
Late submission of returns.
I HAVE the honor to submit the prescribed Vaccination Statements for the
year 1899-1900, with short notes only, that year being an
intermediate one of a triad. The statements should have
reached you by May 15th, but the last return required to complete the compilation
only reached me on May 29th from Nowgong. The district returns were due to me
on April 15th, but in six cases they did not reach me until after May 1st.
Number of vaccinators employ-
ed.
2. Annual Statement No. I shows the number of vaccinators employed and the
work they did. The staff was practically the same as in
former years.
Amount of work done by paid
and licensed vaccinators.
3. Excluding the work done on tea gardens and at dispensaries, where the sex of
the children is not reported, 137,295 males and 98,736
females were vaccinated during the year. Including the
work on tea gardens and dispensaries, the total number of
272,265 vaccine operations were performed, against a total of 258,905 last year and a
quinquennial average of 245,602. This shows that the decrease which occurred in
1898-99 has been much more than stopped, and satisfactory progress has been made;
and I think I may fairly say that this has been more than a little due to the re-iterated
calls of attention to vaccine work, which have been issued from this office, and the
consequent increased attention the District Medical Officers have given to this section
of their multifarious duties.
Percentage of operations report-
ed as successful.
4. Out of the 272,265 vaccine operations, 255,131 were primary and 17,134 were
re-vaccinations. Of the 255,131 primary operations, 61,793
were performed on children under one year old, against
50,389 last year ; and 121,415 on children between 1 year
and 6 years, against 125,645 in the preceding year. The percentage of successful
primary operations works out to 98.50 and of re-vaccinations to 88.90 ; the lymph sup-
plied from the Shillong depôt is of such exceedingly good quality that I am no longer
inclined to doubt the high average of successful primary operations; for Captain
Leventon has lately done 272 cases himself with only two failures, and in each of these
two a second operation the next week was completely successful. The percentage of
successful re-vaccinations has fallen from 93.78 to 88.90. This is only natural. As the
primary work becomes more and more thorough, re-vaccinations will tend to show a
smaller percentage of success.
Number of punctures to be made
in vaccine operations.
5. The lymph, as we make it, is so strong and causes in some cases so much in-
flammation, that I issued a circular for the instruction of all
concerned that punctures were only to be made on one arm
in three places when the children were fine and strong,
and in two only when small or delicate. This has without doubt had a beneficial result
on the amount of work done, as mothers do not object so much when only one arm is
operated on.
Percentage of population pro-
tected.
6. Eleven thousand five hundred and nineteen primary vaccinations were performed
by tea-garden agencies, and 10,963, or a percentage of 95.22,
were reported as successful. The dispensary establishment
did 23,075 primary operations, and reported 22,420, or a
B