3
The percentage of successful primary vaccination of children under one year
of age performed by them during the triennial period under report was 71.62
against 68.93 in the preceding period which is also satisfactory.
House to house vaccination.
7. A further trial of house-to-house vaccination was made this year
and 55,094 operations were performed.
The system is reported by most Civil
Surgeons to be unsuccessful for the reasons given in paragraph 7 of the notes
on vaccination in 1909-10. It is preferred in the districts of Hoshiarpur,
Gurdaspur and Ludhiana, and the Civil Surgeon of Delhi reports that in his
district the system is preferred by the people, as it saves them a great deal of
time and trouble but still they will not assist the vaccinators and so make the
system a success. The Civil Surgeon of Lahore reports that the system of
house-to-house vaccination was introduced in the towns and large villages of his
district and proved a success.
District tuff. Statement No. I.
8. In the triennial period under report the number of operations per-
formed by the district staff amounted to
1,995,751 against 1,954,659, an increase
of 41,092 over the figures for the previous period. Of this 1,629,123 were
primary and 366,628 re-vaccinations. Compared with the figures for the
previous triennial period there is a decrease of 35,483 in primary and an
increase of 76,575 in re-vaccinations. The diminution in primary vaccination
is entirely due to the smaller number of children available for vaccination in
1908-09 and 1909-10. A great improvement was made, however, in 1910-11
when 113,364 operations more than in the preceding year were performed and
every district shared in the increase. In the district of Amritsar the increase
was more than 12,000, next to which comes Hissar with an increase of over
7,000 operations, increases of more than 5,000 operations were noticed in the
districts of Gujrat (6,945), Lyallpur (6,591), Gujranwala (6,273), Sialkot (5,491)
and Multan (5,094). In Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Shahpur, Jullundur and
Ferozpore, the excess was also considerable and amounted to over 4,000 in each
of these districts. Compared with the work of the preceding year there was a
decrease of 9,048 re-vaccinations in 1910-11 and out of 29 districts 17 showed a
decline in the number of operations performed, due chiefly to the greater
prevalence of plague. The decrease was most marked in the Delhi division
which was the part of the Province most severely affected with plague. The
people frequently object to re-vaccination under a misapprehension that inocu-
lations for plague were meant to be enforced under the guise of re-vaccination.
The percentage of male to total number of re-vaccinations in 1910-11 was 67.79
and that of female 32.21 against 68.91 and 31.09 in 1909-10; as stated in
previous reports the reason for fewer females being re-vaccinated is that people
do not wish their young girls to be seen by vaccinators.
District Staff—Parcentage of success —Annual State
ment No. I.
9. In regard to primary vaccinations performed by the district staff in
1910-11 the percentage of success was
97.24 as against 97.63 in 1909-10 and
98.49 in 1908-09 while in the case of
re-vaccinations it was 73.90 in 1910-11 as against 75.12 in 1909-10 and 77.79 in
1908-09. The percentage of vaccinations in which results were not known to
total number in 1910-11 was as usual much less in the case of primay vaccina-
tions (3.52) than in re-vaccinations (16.16). The corresponding figures for the
previous two years were 3.10 and 14.40 in 1909-10 and 2.44 and 15.36 in
1908-09.
The slight decline in the success achieved in 1910-11 appears to be due to
a diminution in the potency of the lymph issued from the Punjab Vaccine Institute
during the earlier part of the season. This was evidenced by a reduction in its
keeping qualities ; lymph which yielded good results at the Institute failing to
do so after issue and exposure to the ordinary amount of heat. As soon as this
became apparent steps were taken to improve the lymph with satisfactory
results. In certain cases undue delay had taken place in using the vaccine
after its receipt by vaccinators, the prescribed period being considerably
exceeded.