2
No. 1177 L., 12TH SEPTEMBER 1918
4. Re-vaccinations alone showed an increase of 56,303 or 25.7 per cent,
distributed with local variations, over local fund areas, municipalities and canton
ments. Large increases occurred in the districts of Malabar, Guntūr and Nellore and
in the case of municipalities in Madura.
5. It is stated that, with a view to improve the technique of operation, special
circulars were issued pointing out the need for using lymph promptly and the system
of issuing tri-monthly supplies of lymph was extended to Madura. The reported
percentage of success, however, fell again from 86.7 to 83.4 in the case of primary
and secondary vaccination, and from 73.4 to 70.8 in the case of re-vaccination.
Coimbatore and Gōdāvari again showed specially poor results. The causes for this
were investigated by the Sanitary Commissioner and the Deputy Sanitary Commis
sioner and their recommendations for effecting an improvement are receiving attention.
The total number of successful operations per mille of the population was returned
at 31.2 for the Presidency as a whole, against 32.8 in the previous year.
Wherever the proportion of successful operations is low, complaints are made
about the quality of the lymph. The Director of the King Institute has been requested
by the Sanitary Commissioner to see if there is really any defect in the lymph
supplied and to adopt such remedial measures as may be necessary. The Government
will be glad to receive a report of the result of this investigation, since although much
credit has not been given to complaints of this nature from vaccinators on whom, as a
class, little reliance could be placed, there have been instances in which the complaints
have been corroborated by better qualified operators. As under the new scheme
vaccinators will have no verification work, the Sanitary Commissioner proposes to
supply vaccine to all of them thrice a month, in order to keep them fully engaged
throughout the month; it is hoped that this will have some effect in improving the
percentage of successful operations. The Sanitary Commissioner and his deputies
should give this subject their close attention in their tours and see that the instruc
tions issued as to the period within which vaccine dispatched from the Institute
should be used, are observed.
6. The average cost of each successful operation in the case of local fund vacci
nations was As. 4-2, against As. 3—10 in the previous year, while in the case of
municipal vaccinations the cost fell from As. 4-10 to As. 4-5. The cost was in excess
of As. 6 in the districts of Cuddapah, Gōdāvari and The Nilgiris and in excess of
As. 9 in the municipalities of Tirupati, Kodaikanal and Peddapuram.
7. The number of children under one year of age successfully vaccinated again
fell from 588,937 to 550,393. The districts in which large decreases occurred
were The Nilgiris, Kistna, Malabar and Bellary. Decreases also occurred in the
municipalities of Bellary, Coonoor and Peddapuram. In Peddapuram, Adōni,
Anantapur, Bellary, Chingleput, Coimbatore and Dharapuram, the number of children
protected against smallpox constitutes a very small proportion of the number, which,
according to the birth registers, should have been available for vaccination. The
municipal councils concerned should insist on greater attention to the vaccination of
children.
8. The Deputy Inspectors of Vaccination verified 66.8 per cent of the total
number of primary and secondary vaccinations in all areas except cantonments and
39.4 per cent of the cases revaccinated. The District Medical and Sanitary Officers
verified a small percentage of primary and secondary operations. In Bellary and
Ramnad the total number of cases verified by them was less than one per cent of the
total number of operations. The verification work done by sanitary assistants to
the District Medical and Sanitary Officers was again inadequate ; it was less than
one per cent in Gōdāvari, Kistna, North Arcot and Tanjore—four out of the five
districts in which sanitary assistants were employed. The Government desire to
have the explanation of the officers responsible for this neglect of verification.
9. The general results of the year were on the whole unsatisfactory. Though
there was a small increase in the total number of operations performed, there was a
fall in the percentage of successful operations and in the number of children under
one year of age successfully vaccinated. The reorganization of the vaccination staff
with effect from the 1st of April 1918 has, it is hoped, enabled presidents of local boards
to recruit vaccinators of a better class than those hitherto employed. The staff of