5
Vaccination Inspecting Staff in this district. As complete copies of tour diaries
have not been submitted as ordered, no criticism of the details of the touring work
can be made. An explanation will be demanded.
In Kamrup, only 8,543 vaccination operations were inspected, against 28,701 in
1913-14 and 35,105 in 1912-13, while the travelling allowance drawn is only some
Rs. 43 less than in 1912-13. The inspection work in this district has suffered
from the absence on sick leave of the permanent Inspector and the withdrawal of
one Sub-Inspector to officiate elsewhere, but as tour diaries have not been submitted
from this district, the disproportionate amount of travelling allowance drawn is not
understood, and an explanation will be demanded.
In this department of the vaccination work also, greater attention should be
given by Civil Surgeons to the manner in which the Inspectors or Sub-Inspectors
of Vaccination do their touring, daily tours to and from district headquarters must
be greatly curtailed. I propose that in future the travelling allowance bills of the
Vaccination Inspecting Staff in districts where this practice appears to obtain must
be submitted to me for countersignature before they are finally passed and I shall
issue orders that not more than seven nights may be spent at headquarters during the
month as already noted.
Of the total expenditure of Rs. 62,169-9-0 during the year 1914-15, Rs. 39,282-2-5
were paid from Provincial revenues, Rs. 20,456-1-6 from local funds, Rs. 1,254-11-1
from municipal funds and Rs. 1,176-10-0 were contributed by the Manipur State.
The average cost of each successful case of vaccination was Re. 0-3-7, as compared
with Re. 0-3-4 of the previous year, an increase which is due to the diminished output
of lymph which makes the production proportionally more costly.
14 General.—The total number of primary vaccinations performed in tea estates
during the year was 16,800 and re-vaccinations 2,144, the percentages of successes
being 96.06 and 85.95, respectively. Four hundred and forty-one primary operations
and 600 re-vaccinations were performed in jails, the percentages of success being
76.19 and 62.16, respectively. One hundred and six primary operations and 69 re-
vaccinations were performed by railway agencies, the percentages of successes being
82.07 and 42.42, respectively.
In conclusion, I wish to urge the prime necessity of greater attention being paid
to the details of district vaccination by Civil Surgeons if any substantial improvement
in the defects noted in this report is to be attained. The comments I have made in
this report show the details to which attention is required.
During the year, circulars have been issued calling attention to the need for
greater care in inspection and for verification of the accuracy of entries in vaccinators'
registers. The practice of inspecting the arms of a number of vaccinated children
and recording this number as vaccination operations inspected, is of no value to the
department, as however badly vaccination is being performed, and however
inaccurate may be the returns, a certain number of children can always be produced
to satisfy an inspecting officer who works on this system, which is, I regret to say,
only too prevalent. In some districts, returns are being falsified for want of this
supervision.
Sufficient control is not exercised over the work of the Inspectors and Sub-Inspectors,
the claims of the Civil Surgeon's office are being permitted to overrule those of the
inspection of vaccination and a sufficient number of case inspections is not in all cases
exacted from them.
The method upon which the tours of the Inspecting Staff are carried out is not
sufficiently supervised. The working of the Vaccination Act in areas of compulsory
vaccination does not invariably receive the attention from Civil Surgeons that they
as the District Superintendents of Vaccinations should give to it. The procedure
laid down by the Act is largely in abeyance and the prescribed forms have not
been used.
The delay in the submission of this report is due to the late receipt of many
district returns, and to their statistical inaccuracy due to carelessness in preparation
which necessitated recalculations and frequent references. The district reports
which were due on May 1st were received in this office as noted below :—
Kamrup and Nowgong
...
...
Lushai Hills
...
...
...
Dirrang
...
...
...
...
Cachar and Khasi and Jaintia Hills
...
...
Lakhimpur
...
...
...
...
Sylhet and Sibsagar ... ... ...
Goalpara
...
...
...
...
May 10th.
„
13th.
„
14th.
„
17th.
„
19th.
„
22nd.
„
24th.