VACCINATION REPORT.
5
be expected to be satisfactory. With the employment of qualified vaccina
tors (i.e., sanitary inspectors with special training in vaccination in the
King Institute, Guindy,) on higher rates of pay, better results may be expected.
The question of improving the personnel and the pay of these staffs is at present
engaging the attention of the District Boards in the Presidency. (G.O. No. 1814 L.,
dated 23rd October 1913.).
B. Inspection by Deputy Sanitary Commissioners.—During the major portion
of the year, there was only one Deputy Sanitary Commissioner on duty in the whole
of the Presidency. Captain Quirke did satisfactory inspection work during the
year under report. Among the places visited by him were Puttur, Karvet¬
nagar, Pallipatti and Narayanavaram villages in the North Arcot district,
taluks of Nandyal, Markapur and Cumbum in the Kurnool district and munici
palities of Tirupati, Vellore, Vāniyambādi, Gudiyāttam and Cuddalore. He also
attended the Sanitary Conference in Lucknow as a delegate from this Presidency..
During the short period Dr. Matthew was on duty as Deputy Sanitary Com
missioner, he inspected the municipalities of Negapatam, Guntūr, Bezwada, Anaka¬
palle, Rajahmundry, Berhampur and the villages of Nidubrolu, Ponnur, Patasola,
Tadipuru, Pattareddipalaiyam, Chibrolu Vadlamudi and Munipalle. The inspection
of Negapatam was specially undertaken when plague broke out in that town. The
steps taken by him during his visit to combat the epidemic proved satisfactory.
C. Vaccination.—As in previous years, the " Trial Scheme " of vaccination
under which both the registration of births and deaths and infantile vaccination
are compulsory was in force in the whole of the Chingleput district and in selected
areas in North Arcot, South Arcot and Madura districts. The Government have
since abandoned the general introduction of the scheme throughout the Presidency
as " there are large areas in which its introduction would for the present be in
advisable" (G.O. No. 1814 L., dated 23rd October 1913). This system of com
pulsory registration of vital statistics and of compulsory vaccination throughout the
Presidency must be brought about sooner or later and until this is done, vaccination
will not make any appreciable progress in this Presidency.
D. The following table exhibits the total vaccination work performed by
all agencies throughout the Presidency during the last three years :—
—
Primary vaccination
...
...
...
Re-vaccination ... ... ...
Total ...
1911-12.
1,455,485
147,492
1,602,977
1912-13.
1,461,790
124,554
1,586,344
1913-14.
1,527,112
150,584
1,677,696
Compared with the two previous years, the number of cases vaccinated during
1913-14 showed a considerable increase which is satisfactory. The districts which
showed largest increases were Guntūr ( + 25,301), Vizagapatam (+ 11,554), Ganjām
(+ 9,566), Malabar (+ 7,605), Kistna (+ 6,320), and Coimbatore (+ 5,114). Only
three districts showed a decrease: they were Tanjore (-16,642), Chingleput
( - 4,184) and Anantapur ( - 712).
The reasons assigned by the Deputy-Inspectors of Vaccination for this decrease
were (1) non-prevalence of small-pox in Tanjore and Chingleput. districts, and
(2) failure to appoint proper substitutes during the leave vacancies of vaccinators
in all the three districts in question. The difficulty to secure proper substitutes
was probably due to the low rates of pay allowed to the last grade of vaccinators
to which alone acting men could be appointed. This disability should disappear
on the introduction of the new scheme which allows higher rates of pay to this
class of vaccinators in rural areas.
B