3
Inspection of Vaccination-
Statement V.
9. In spite of the prevalence of plague, a fair amount of inspection
work was done by Civil Surgeons: 57,833 primary and
6,705 re-vaccinations were inspected by them in 4,418
villages in 598 days; but there is still much room for
improvement. The Civil Surgeon, Damoh, was out on tour for only 13 days
and inspected 935 primary and 210 re-vaccinations in 95 villages. The work in
this district is very unsatisfactory. Civil Surgeons of small stations should be
able to devote more time to inspecting the work in their districts. In Narsinghpur,
Chhindwara, Balaghat, Amraoti, Yeotmal, Akola and Buldana also a very small
number was inspected. The Assistant Superintendents of Vaccination and
other inspecting officers, such as the Sub-Divisional Medical Officers, &c.,
visited 21,615 villages in 5,219 days and inspected 283,190 primary and 27,016
re-vaccinations.
I regret to have to note that the practice of collecting children for inspection
at different centres is still followed in many districts in spite of annual exhortations
to the contrary and some district reports mention that even vaccinators also are in
the habit of collecting children for vaccination. This is a very unsound procedure.
The practice is irksome to the mothers, and the so-called unpopularity of
vaccination among the better classes, mentioned in some of the reports, is no
doubt largely due to this. The better class women, unlike their labouring and low
class sisters, naturally object to carrying their babies long distances and there
await the arrival of the inspecting officer for hours together. I hope Civil Surgeons
will use their best endeavours to stop this system.
The periodical inspection of school children by the local dispensary and the
plague staff seems to have resulted in the vaccination of a large number of unpro-
tected children. The Civil Surgeon, Saugor, mentions the great assistance
rendered in this direction by Mr. Craddock, Inspector of Schools, to whom my
thanks are due.
Vaccination in Municipal
towns—Appendix A.
10. The instructions drawn up by the Deputy Commissioner, Nagpur, which
were circulated to many districts, resulted in a great
improvement in many Municipal towns. As many as 93
per cent of the available children were successfully vaccinated in spite of the
prevalence of plague. The following are the only towns where work has been
slack—Narsinghpur, Pachmarhi, Tumsar, Gondia, Dhamtari, Buldana and Kham-
gaon ; it will be well if the local authorities here were to exert themselves and
get the unprotected vaccinated during the off season. During the year the
Legislative Council passed a Resolution for extending the provisions of the
Vaccination Act to Notified Areas, in consequence of which six Notified Areas
Katol, Sohagpur, Itarsi, Gondia, Bhatapara and Drug—were brought under the
operations of the Act. The Act was extended to the Municipal town of Khapa
also.
Deaths from small-pox—Ap-
pendix B.
11. Small-pox shows a welcome decline: the deaths numbered only 865
against 3,133 in 1914-15 and 6,174 in the year previous.
The Chhattisgarh districts still show a large number.
Unless persistent efforts are made on the lines indicated in the report for 1913-14,
it will not be possible to eradicate the scourge.
General remarks.
12. The village vaccination registers referred to in the notes for the last
year have been supplied to many villages during the
year. A badge, to be worn like a medal on the left breast
of a vaccinator to denote that he is a public vaccinator, has been introduced.
The rotatory vaccination lancet is highly spoken of, and Major Kenrick writes of
it: " the resulting scars are small, well-defined and discrete " and " cases of
bad arms are rarely met with."
Now that the date of submission of the Provincial Report to Government has
been altered from 1st June to 1st July, Civil Surgeons have been given sufficient
time for the preparation of their returns and reports ; but, in spite of this, many of
the district returns were very incorrectly prepared, which necessitated their return
for correction. Civil Surgeons should therefore impress on their clerks the
necessity of following carefully the instructions issued with this office Circular
No. 467, dated the 25th February 1913.
The delay in the submission of this report is due to the late receipt of the
reports from the Berar districts, which reached my office only on the 19th June.
G. W. P. DENNYS, COL., I.M.S.,
Sanitary Commissioner,
Central Provinces.
NAGPUR :
The 29th June 1916.