13
Taking the year as a whole the rainfall was 27 per cent. or more in defect
in the Punjab, Sind, Rajputana, Gujarat and north Hyderabad and was nearly
up to normal in the South and East.
Early in the year there was abnormally heavy rain on the Frontier with
enhanced sick rates in February, and in north-west India. This was succeeded
after a definite cold wave by a trying hot weather with high humidity. A
scanty and deficient monsoon period was followed by a prolonged, warm
autumn which carried malaria and sandfly fever into the late autumn months.
Defective rainfall was markedly accentuated in Rajputana and West
Central areas where famine conditions prevailed. The chief military station
affected was Nasirabad where shortage of water lead to evacuation of certain
troops.
Heavy rainfall in the late monsoon occurred in the United Provinces and
eastwards and a very heavy fall round Agra and Cawnpore resulted in a marked
rise in sandfly fever, 50 cases in one day at Agra. With the excess rain in
Bengal and eastern United Provinces an epidemic of . Dengue was recorded
from Luckn ow and considerable numbers in Calcutta. High summer and
autumn temperatures also ruled in this area.
In the South rainfall and temperatures were average except on the west
coast and in the Bombay area where local excess lead to conditions favouring
malaria.
The extreme conditions enjoyed by troops in Waziristan are worth. noting.
Temperatures which range from the 25 degrees of frost in winter to 122°F
in the summer ; rain of which half the annual fall may be experienced in one
storm and relative humidity which varies from 9 to 99 per cent in the course
of a few days.
(b) Seasonal incidence of main diseases.—These followed their normal
course with one or two exceptions. The seasonal incidence of total admission
is shown overleaf in graphic form.
Malaria was prolonged into the autumn in northern India by the late
warm autumn, the makings of a heavy malarial season in this area were nul-
lified by dry weather, except at Ambala and in Meerut District where rain-
fall was considerable and minor epidemics occurred. in, the Bombay area
-there was however a malarial epidemic which was reflected in the increased
malaria amon gst troops who were on outpost duties. The malarial rate for
troops in Bombay is 78 per 1,000 which Is 50 per .1,000 more than in 1938 ;
-sixty per cent, of these admissions were from men actually on outpost duties.
Sandfly fever was in evidence in the autumn in the U. P. after the
abnormal storms which in Agra did considerable damage and later favoured
sandfly breeding.
Small-poxw a s p r e v a l e n t i n m a n y a r e a s a n d a p p e a r e d i n e p i d e m i c f o r m i n
the country round Abbottabad and at Ambala in the Railway colony and the
Saddar Bazaar and at Ferozepore and in Tribal territory on the Frontier.
At Abbottabad 2 I. O. Rs. and some families were infected.
The dysentery-diarrhea group was almost epidemic in the spring and
autumn fly seasons at stations in the Northern Command.
(c) Health and Diseases of Civil Communities— 1939.—Cholera.—In India,
the endemic home of cholera, widespread dissemination has occurred after
pilgrim festivals. In January 1939 the Central Advisory Board of Health
examined the matter of compulsory inoculation but it was decided that the
time was not yet ripe for total compulsory inoculation.