14
VACCINATION REPORT
and Madura districts. The general extension of the scheme to the other
districts was abandoned during the last official year; but the Government in
their Order No. 1248 L., dated 6th September 1915, reviewing the Annual
Vaccination Report for 1914-15 stated that they hoped to issue general orders in the
course of the year in regard to the improvement of the pay and prospects of
vaccinators and Deputy Inspectors of Vaccination. The orders of Government
have not yet been received and in the meantime the difficulties in the way of
carrying on vaccination properly, portrayed in the previous report is becoming
more and more acutely felt. The steady increase in the cost of living which has
been going on in this country for the last few years together with the pretty
sudden general rise in the price of food consequent on the great war has made it
difficult for the humblest of menials to secure the bare necessaries of life on the
old wages of Rs. 6 or Rs. 7 per mensem. And yet the dignified vaccinator who is
not a menial but a subordinate officer has yet to begin public service on Rs. 5 to
7 a month with an unpaid probation extending to several months in some cases.
Vaccination, simple as it looks, is a highly technical operation requiring con
siderable skill and intelligence to understand the details and it is an operation by
law restricted to be done by fully qualified medical men in most civilized countries.
Until we have a better set of vaccinators, it is hopeless to expect any real
improvement in vaccination in this Presidency. I have during the last two years
inspected vaccination practically in every part of the Presidency and the conclu
sion I have come to is that we are yet long way from the goal of perfection.
The great defect in vaccination at present is not the large number that escape
vaccination altogether, but the poor standard of successful vaccination. It should
be noted that the protection from small-pox depends largely upon the quality
of successful vaccination. To achieve any real progress, a staff of properly trained
and adequately paid vaccinators is essential. A standard of general education
should be prescribed together with a course of technical instruction at a Central
Institute for a period of not less than three months and local bodies should be
required to recruit vaccinators from among such duly qualified hands.
The scheme for improving the pay and prospects of Deputy Inspectors of
Vaccination already proposed and approved has to be brought into effect as soon
as possible as a great deal depends upon an efficient and contented supervising
staff. A conscientious Deputy Inspector of Vaccination has hard work to do.
(ii) The total vaccination work performed during the last two years by all
agencies throughout the Presidency is shown in the following table :—
Primary vaccination ... ...
Re-vaccination ... ... ...
Total ...
1914-15.
1,512,515
176,407
1,688,922
1915-16.
1,532,185
268,985
l,801,170
The number of cases vaccinated during 1915-16 shows an increase of 112,248
over the figure of 1914-15. It is satisfactory to note that there is a marked
increase both under primary and re-vaccinations, the increase in the former being
19,670 and in the latter 92,578. This is due to a great extent to the stimulus
given by the prevalence of small-pox in several parts of the Presidency combined
with the efforts made to induce the vaccination staff to make greater exertions by
circulars from this office and by personal instructions during my inspections.
Largest increases are noticeable in the districts of Vizagapatam (+ 19,295),
Malabar (+16,264) and Tanjore (+15,231). The districts which showed a
marked decrease were Guntūr (—13,655), Salem (—5,781) and Kurnool
(— 3,306). The apparent fall in Guntūr is due to the extraordinarily large number
of vaccinations done in the two previous years when the district was in the throes
of a severe small-pox epidemic. The fall in Salem is partly accounted for by the
prevalence of plague while Kurnool suffered from dearth of vaccinators.