2
estimated. During the three seasons 1902-1905 the total number of children
available for vaccination was 2,063,111, and of these 1,315,186, or 63.75, were
successfully vaccinated. The number of children available for vaccination
during the period 1905-08 was 1,964,604 of which 1,354,127 or 68.93 per cent.
were successfully vaccinated. Without discussing here the conditions which
have led to a diminution of nearly 100,000 in the number of children available
for vaccination during the present triennium, the fact that under these conditions
the proportion of children successfully vaccinated has increased by more than
five per cent. may, I think, be accepted as an indication of progress in the
Vaccination Department.
Of the total operations 1,828,674 were primary—and 332,967 re-vaccina-
tions as against 1 ,768,849 and 303,571 during the previous triennial period,
there is thus an increase both in primary and re-vaccinations, the increase
amounting to 59,825 and 29,396 respectively.
Total operations.
Statement No. I.
7. District Staff.—During the triennial period under report the total
number of operations performed by the District Staff
amounted to 1,954,659 against 1,920,344, an increase of
34,315 over the figures for the previous period. The fluctuation in the number of
vaccinations performed in different districts during the two triennial periods and
in its component years has been very considerable and is attributable to various
causes, of which redistribution of the population as a cause of great increase in the
districts of Shahpur, Jhang and Lyallpur and of a diminution in those of
Jullundur, Lahore, Gurdaspur and Sialkot is probably an important one.
Plague interfered with the progress of vaccination in many districts, chiefly
during 1906-07. The principal increase occurred in the districts of Hissar,
Mianwali, Jhang, Lyallpur and Muzaffargarh, most of which suffered but
slightly from plague as compared with the rest of the province. There
was also an increase in the districts of Hoshiarpur and Shahpur. On the
other hand there has been a decrease in the number of vaccinations per-
formed in the districts of Delhi, Lahore, Gurdaspur, Kangra and Dera
Ghazi Khan. The district of Dera Ghazi Khan suffered from malarial fevers, and
the districts of Delhi, Lahore and Gurdaspur suffered more or less severely from
plague. The decrease in the number of operations performed in 1905-06 in the
Kangra District has been explained in the Notes for that year, as having been
due to the employment of the vaccinators on special earthquake relief duty.
Primary and re-vaccina-
tions.
Statement No. I.
8. The number of primary vaccinations performed by the district
staff during the period under report amounted to 1,664,606
and of re-vaccination to 290,053. Compared with the
figures for the previous triennial period there is an increase
of 26,787 in primary—and 7,528 in re-vaccinations. The number of primary
operations performed by the District Staff in 1907-08 was 528,791 against
547,460 in 1906 07 and 588,355 in 1905-06. The number of re-vaccinations
amounted to 107,651 in 1907-08 as compared with 80,278 in 1906-07 and
102,124 in 1905-06.
The diminution in the number of primary vaccinations during the present
season is due chiefly to the smaller number of births, the cause of which has already
been discussed in the Sanitary Report. The diminution affects most districts, but
is chiefly marked in the case of the Kangra district where it amounts to
over 8,000 and is attributed by the Civil Surgeon to the necessity of stopping
of vaccination in Kulu owing to harvesting. There is also a decrease of over
7,000 in the number of primary vaccination in the Lahore district. In Hissar
the decrease exceeds 4,000 and is over 3,000 in Ambala, Jullundur and Gurdaspur.
There has been an increase of nearly 7,500 primary vaccinations in the
Amritsar district, of over 5,000 in the Ferozepore district and of over 3,000
in the Gurgaon and Multan districts.
Re-vaccination, in spite of opposition attributed by some Civil Surgeons
to scarcity and by others to the prevalence of small-pox has increased in all but
thirteen districts. The most noticeable improvement is in the Multan district
where the number of re-vaccinations performed during 1907-08 is the highest
for the province amounting to 18,585 or more than 16,000 in excess of the
previous season. Kangra comes next with nearly 14,000 re-vaccinations, an
increase of 5,000 as compared with last year. Hoshiarpur shows a similar
increase, and in Delhi the increase exceeds 4,000.