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NOTES ON VACCINATION IN ASSAM FOR THE YEAR 1924-25.
1. Introductory.— The charge of the Department was held throughout the year
by Major T. D. Murison, D.P.H., I.M S., and the post of the Assistant Director of
Public Health was held by Dr. P. Gupta, D.P.H., from 15th August 1924 to the end of
the year.
2. Vaccination agencies.—As usual, the vaccination work in the plains districts
was carried out by vaccinators paid by Local Boards and Municipalities, and in the
hills by vaccinators paid by Government. The total number of vaccinators employed
during the year was 432, as compared with 425 in the previous year. There were
four additional vaccinators in each of the districts of Kamrup and Nowgong, two in
Sylhet and one each in Sibsagar and Lakhimpur and five less in Manipur State.
Notwithstanding a decrease in the number of vaccinators in Manipur State the number
of vaccinations performed showed an increase of 1,593. In the tea gardens, dispensaries,
Jails, Mental hospital, Police hospitals, Infectious diseases hospitals and Railway
hospitals, the vaccination operations were performed by their respective Medical Staff.
3. Total number of operations.—The total number of vaccination operations per-
formed in the province during the year 1924-25 was 418,359 as compared with 385,579
in the preceding year showing an increase of 32,780 operations. The district variations
are discussed in paragraph 8 of this report. The number of operations performed by
the different agencies was as follows:—
379,321 operations by departmental vaccinators.
2,961 operations by dispensary staff.
33,243 operations by tea garden agencies.
2,558 operations by jail, mental, police and infectious diseases hospital
staff.
276 operations by railway agency.
4. Deaths from small-pox.—The death-rate from small-pox per mille of population
during the year was .22, as compared with .40 in 1923-24. This shows a very satisfac-
tory decrease. The highest death-rate of .96 was reported from the Kamrup district.
This district also showed a very high death-rate for the previous two years. A chief
reason for the persistence of small-pox in this district is the opposition to vaccination
by Mahapurushias. It is reported that they as a rule are the first to offer opposition and
that their example is followed by other classes. It is now proposed in 1925 that
certain villages whose inhabitants refuse to accept vaccination and where outbreaks of
small-pox are very frequent, be declared as infected with small-pox under the provisions
of the regulations published under Government Notification No. 1873L.S.-G., dated
11th May 1925. The next highest rate of .56 per mille was reported from the
Darrang district in which Kacharis in general and those of Dalgaon, Orang and
Chinakona mauzas all in the Mangaldai subdivision in particular are strongly opposed
to vaccination. In Nowgong district, which reported the highest mortality from small-
pox in 1923-24, 500 Mahapurushias and 1,300 Lalungs who are habitually opposed
to vaccination were vaccinated during the year under report. An epidemic of small-
pox occurred in the Sibsagar district in the month of December.
5. Dispensary vaccination.—Of the 2,961 vaccination operations performed by
the dispensary staff 1,457 were primary and 1,504 were revaccinations. The
figures of the previous year were 2,099 vaccinations, of these 1,363 were primary
and 736 revaccinations. As usual, villages around dispensaries are allotted to
vaccinators and only those who prefer to be done by the dispensary medical officers
attend them for the purpose.
6. Percentage of successful vaccination.—The percentage of success in primary
operations performed by all establishments during the year 1924-25 was 95.19, as
compared with 95.58 in the preceding year, whilst in the case of revaccinations the