MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENT.
SANITATION.
CALCUTTA, THE 2ND SEPTEMBER 1901.
RESOLUTION—No. 2713S.
READ—
The statistical statements and notes on Vaccination for the year 1900-1901, submitted by
the Sanitary Commissioner.
Read also—
The statements and notes for 1899-1900, with the Government Resolution recorded
upon them.
The Sanitary Commissioner's notes now form a brief review of the
statistics of the year, so that it is unnecessary in this Resolution to separately
summarise the figures.
2. The most noticeable feature in the year's record is the high death-rate
from small-pox. The death-rate for the whole province was 3.4 per 10,000
a far higher rate than in any of the previous ten years, and about twice the rate
in five years of the decade. The rate was highest in the Cuttack district (36
per 10,000), Calcutta (33 per 10,000), Puri and Palamau (each 18 per 10,000),
Balasore (9 per 10,000), and Midnapore (8 per 10,000). In only one of these
districts, Balasore, have more than 18 per cent. of the population been pro-
tected in the past seven years, and in the three districts of Orissa and in
Palamau there was a falling-off last year in the number of operations, notwith-
standing the prevalence of small-pox.
3. The Lieutenant-Governor's attention has been recently drawn to the
insufficient protection afforded by the arrangements in Calcutta. This was
very clearly shown by the large proportion of unvaccinated patients treated
in the Campbell Hospital. There are undoubtedly great difficulties in dealing
with the immigrant labouring population; but the Lieutenant-Governor is
not satisfied that the revised arrangements, which have been proposed by the
Commissioners, will meet the requirements of the case. This matter is
however, being separately dealt with.
4. It is satisfactory to find that there has been real progress in munici-
palities in the interior where vaccination is compulsory. As regards the
province generally, there is, however, much room for improvement. This is
evident from the diagram in paragraph 13 of the Sanitary Commissioner's
notes as well as from the statistical returns. The Sanitary Commissioner can
himself do a great deal by calling attention, as he proposes to do, to results
which seem to him to be unsatisfactory; but the matter really depends
upon the efforts of the local officers. If the Magistrate and Civil Surgeon
of each district would together examine the figures of their district as they
appear in the Sanitary Commissioner's returns, and contrast them with the
figures of other districts, they would see at once in what respects the results
are unsatisfactory, and would be able, with their local knowledge, to make
and suggest improvements with the greatest likelihood of success and with
the least likelihood of delay in their execution. This may be illustrated by
an examination of a few of the figures of the Shahabad district—a district in
which only one person in ten has been protected in the last seven years.
Statement No. I shows that on the average each vaccinator performed only
312 operations in the year, that only 20,800 children under six years of age
were vaccinated out of a population of nearly two millions, that there were only
three cases of re-vaccination, and that altogether only 11.78 per thousand of
the population were successfully vaccinated. These figures are not worse than
the corresponding figures of the previous year, and they are, therefore, not
noticed in the Sanitary Commissioner's lists of retrogressions ; but they stand
out as extraordinarily low in contrast with the average provincial figures,
and in most cases also in contrast with the figures of other districts in the same
division. Much the same may be said of the Puri district. Only 17 per cent.
of the population have been protected in the last seven years. Statement No. I
shows that on the average each paid vaccinator performed 1,253 operations,
but each licensed vaccinator only 116 operations, that only 11,450 children
under six years of age were vaccinated out of a population of nearly a million,
that there were only 21 cases of re-vaccination, and that altogether only 15.04