No. 4521/237
Extract from the Proceedings of the Chief Commissioner, Central Provinces, in
the General Department, dated Nagpur, the 26th July 1889.
READ—the Annual Statements of Vaccination operations in the Central Provinces for
the year 1888-89, with Notes by the Superintendent General.
READ also the District Reports.
RESOLUTION.
The total number of operations performed during the year by the Depart-
ment was 434,935 : of which 408,758 were primary and 26,177 re-vaccinations.
In comparing these totals with those for the preceding year, the figures
representing the work done in the States of Bamra and Sonpur must be omitted,
as the returns for these two Feudatories were not received in time to be incor-
porated in last year's Statement. After making this deduction the total
number of operations is 429,858, of which 403,809 were primary and 26,049
re-vaccinations. The Superintendent-General has also left out of account the
operations performed in the States of Kanker and Chhuikhadan, but this
appears incorrect. As vaccination was not carried on in those States during the
preceding year, the work done there represents a real increase. The total
number of operations in the preceding year was 411,908, of which 393,987
were primary and 17,921 re-vaccinations. The increase thus amounted to
17,950 operations, 9,822 being primary and 8,128 re-vaccinations. Of this
increase, 15,839 occurred in the Khalsa and 2,111 in Feudatory States. The
most marked district increase is shown in the Narsinghpur district, where the
number of vaccinations rose from 14,011 to 23,295, an increase of 9,284 cases.
The number of Dispensary operations fell from 15,382 to 14,515 (omitting
Sonpur).
2. The percentage of successful primary vaccinations, as stated by vacci-
nators, was 95.96, approximately the same as for the previous year. The Super-
intendent-General shows that this ratio is probably over-stated. The percentages
found by inspecting officers would, however, as pointed out in last year's review,
naturally fall short somewhat of the actual average. The percentage of
successful re-vaccinations rose from 73.99 to 78.21.
'3. A satisfactory feature of the year's returns is the increase in the
number of children under the age of one year who were vaccinated.
The
total was 173,924 in 1887-88, and 197,854 in the year under review—an
advance of 23,930 cases.
4. The exceptional virulence of small-pox during the year has been com-
mented on in the Sanitary Report. The recorded deaths numbered 15,279,
while the average annual number of the previous five years was only 3,818.
Raipur and Bilaspur were the districts which suffered most, and the prevalence
of the disease there is attributed by the Civil Surgeons to inoculation. Inocu-
lation, however, is no new thing in Chhattisgarh: and it is the opinion of the
Deputy Commissioner of Raipur that the vaccinators exaggerate the work and
numbers of the inoculators in order to extenuate their own neglect of duty.
In Bilaspur three inoculators were sentenced each to three months' rigorous
imprisonment under Section 270, Indian Penal Code. The Officiating Chief
Commissioner agrees with the Commissioner that inoculation cannot be suppressed
by means of the ordinary Criminal law. The best method of coping with it in
rural tracts is for the vaccinators to be in the field beforehand. The Deputy
Commissioners of Raipur and Bilaspur both report that there is no hostility to
vaccination on the part of the people : and the former points out that the fact
that a larger number of children under the age of one year were vaccinated
during the year, is against the theory of the spread of inoculation. In Munici-
palities the provisions of the Vaccination Act (XIII of 1880) can be brought
into operation, and the Act was extended to the town of Raipur in October last.