Triennial report on vaccination in Assam.

  • Assam
Date:
[1917]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Triennial report on vaccination in Assam. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    inspecting staff is somewhat disappointing in view of the efforts that have been made to keep them out on tour during the working season (see paragraph 3). I am inclin¬ ed to think that more work really has been done by them and better work, but as it has taken them longer to do it on account of the greater detail of inspection now required of them and as the submission of inaccurate returns is liable to lead them into serious trouble, no increase in the quantity of their work is demonstrable from statistics, which take no account of the quality of work done. Darrang with a record of only 31 per cent, of inspections of the total number of operations performed shows a lowrer percentage of inspections than any of the other plains districts and this is probably due to the unsatisfactory wcrk of some members of the inspec ing staff in this district on whom the Civil Surgeon has commented unfavourably. 11. The Bengal Vaccination .Act, V of 1880, was extended to the Unions of Man- galdai and Nazira during the year 1916-17. During the a elsC1 atl°U m CompuL°!y triennium under review the number of compulsory areas was raised from 13 to 19. the six new compulsory areas being those of Sunamganj, Karimganj, Maulvi Bazar, Barpeta, Mangaldai and Nazira. The total number of births registered in nineteen compulsory areas during 1916 was 3,722 and deducting 54 2 deaths of children under one year, the total number of infants under one year available for vaccination was 3,180, ot which 1,805 or 56'76 per cent, was successfully vaccinated, as compared with 49*03 per cent, in 1915-16 and 67 per cent, in 1U14-15. During the year 1916-17 the highest percentage (98 per cent.) was recorded in the town oi Goalpara, followed by Golaghat (93 per cent.), Nowgong and Tezpur each recording 91 per cent., Shillong 69 per cent., Jorhat 65 per cent, and Silehar, Dibrugarh and Barpeta each recording 61 per cent.. The degree of protection afforded to infants under one year was the lowest in the towns of Mangaldai (8 per cent.) and Sunamganj (6 per cent.). The compulsory Act has only recently been extended to these towns and better results may be expected in future. The degree of protection in the town of Sylhet is only 18 per cent., which is unsatisfactory. This town has a Sanitary Inspector who is in charge of the municipal vaccination work, better results should he attainable, and the attention of the Civil Surgeon and the Chairman of the Municipality will be drawn to this. In Gauhati 6 per ons were prosecuted and 3 convicted and fined Re. 1 each. In Barpeta 31 p<rs n* were piosecuted and they subsequently got their children vaccinated. It moy be pointed out that these percentages do not mean that the difference between each number and 100 represents the number of children born in the town remaining unvaccinated. Practically no children over one year of age remain unvaccinated in any of the compulsory areas and the difference actually represents the number of children whose parents have preferred to postpone vaccination until their chil Iren are over one year of age, plus the not inconsiderable number of children whose parents have left the town before the children were vaccinated, plus the children who have died after completing the first year of life and before the commencement of another vaccination season. Up to the present we have administer¬ ed the provisions of the compulsory Act on the assumption that parents could not legally be compelled to have their children vaccinated until they had completed twelve months of life, whereas it now appears from legal opinions that the Civil Surgeon as Superintendent of vaccination has power at discretion to require vaccina¬ tion at any suitable time after birth. Steps shoull therefore he taken in future to ensure that before the termination of the vaccination season all children born during the previous twelve months are successfully vaccinated and orders will be issued accordingly. If this procedure is carried out successfully, the percentages given in this paragraph should, in future, approximate more nearly to cent per cent. 12. During the year 1916-17,668,559 capillary tubes were loaded as compared . with 497,692 in 1915-16 and 547,447 in 1914-15. aecme .put. The increase in the year 1916-17 is due to increased demands owing to an epidemic of small-pox and to the commencement of storage of vaccine lymph in the cold storage room of the Pasteur Institute. This stored lymph will be issued during the current season. Arrangements have now been made where¬ by all vaccine lymph will be kept in cold storage at the Pasteur Institute for such period as experiment determines to be necessary for the disappearance of all organisms of suppuration from the lymph and up to the maximum period of storage without deterioration in potency. The bacteriological sterility is determined by examination in the Provincial Laboratory and no lymph will in future be issued until its practical
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