No. 7214.

Extract from the Proceedings of the Officiating Chief Commissioner, Central
Provinces, in the General Department, dated Nagpur, the 25th August
1900.

READ—

Note on Vaccination in the Central Provinces for the season 1899-1900, with State-
ments.

READ ALSO—

                           The District Reports.

                                             RESOLUTION.

No report accompanies the annual statements as to vaccination during the
year 1899-1900. The statements with notes on them by the Administrative
Medical Officer were due in the Secretariat in the first half of June, but they
were not received until the middle of August. The delay is explained as having
been consequent on late submission of the returns from Feudatory States and at
the date of sending to Press the returns were not complete as those for the Sakti
State had not all been received.

2.    The number of primary vaccinations was 17 per cent. higher than in the
preceding year, this being in no small measure due to the unusually large number
of births in 1898 and 1899, which has formed the subject of notice in the review
of the sanitation reports for those years. Another reason is to be found in
the marked increase in the number of operations performed by Hospital Assist-
ants. The gathering together of persons in famine-relief camps to which
Hospital Assistants were attached afforded special opportunity for vaccina-
tion. Having regard to the fact that during the vaccination season a
portion of the staff had to be taken away for employment on plague, cholera,
and famine duty, the favourable opinion expressed by the Administrative Medical
Officer as to the quantity of work done by the staff during the year finds ample
support in the statistics.

3.    The number of re-vaccinations has much decreased, particularly in the
Feudatory States, where it has fallen by about 50 per cent. The notes do not
explain this marked decrease. In the khalsa the falling-off was about 20 per
cent.; the number re-vaccinated having been less by 10,535 than in the preceding
year. The Betul District alone shows a decrease of 11,061 under this head,
only 835 re-vaccinations having been performed against 11,896 in the year before.
It is explained that in 1898-99 the number of re-vaccinations was abnormally
high in Betul owing to the prevalence of small-pox in that year. The notes do not
show how much of the re-vaccination was of adolescents and adults. A very high
number of re-vaccinations in the case of infants might imply indifferent results in
primary operations, but when re-vaccination figures are extremely low a doubt
arises as to the accuracy of the reported results in the case of infant vaccina-
tion and as to the effectiveness of the protection among adolescents. Re-vaccina-
tion, though occupying a subordinate place in the work of the staff, is yet a
matter of much importance, and last year's figures are not in this respect so
satisfactory as they are in regard to the number of primary operations.

4.    The table giving the statistics as to the amount of vaccination among
infants in the Municipalities of the Province shows striking contrasts in
the results obtained in different towns. In some towns, such as Nagpur, Harda,
and Umrer, the percentage of successful vaccinations among infants is only about
35 of those classed as available In many other towns a percentage of about 50
was obtained. This appears to indicate that infant vaccination is not very popular
in towns, where the average individual is better educated than is the case in rural
tracts. The percentage for the whole district of Nagpur is, for instance,
66 compared with the town percentage of 36. It would be interesting to
know to what extent this difference may be ascribed to more careful check of the
success of operations. In some towns, such as Khandwa, Burhanpur, Narsingh.
pur, and Raipur, considerably more infants were successfully vaccinated than the