Notes on the Annual Statements of Vaccine operations in the
Central Provinces for the year 1888-89.
1. Except that the area within which Vaccine operations were carried
on included 27 instead of 18 Zamindaris, and 13 instead of 9 Feudatory States,
it remained the same as during the preceding year.
STATEMENT No. I.
2. The strength of the Vaccine Establishment shows an increase of 6 Vac-
cinators as compared with its strength during the previous year. Of this increase,
3 Vaccinators are credited to the Provincial, and 3 to the Feudatory States Estab-
lishment.
3. The number of persons successfully vaccinated, excluding cases of re-vac-
cination, was 392,246. This gives an increase over the figures of the previous
year of 13,703. But from this number must be deducted the numbers success-
fully vaccinated in Bamra, Sonpur, Chhuikhadan and Kanker Feudatory States,
leaving an increase for 1888-89 over that for the preceding year of only 7,095.
The returns from the Feudatory States named were not included in the previous
year's returns; and therefore, in making a comparison between the work of the
two seasons, the returns for these States must be omitted in the case of both.
4. The percentage of successful primary vaccinations was 95.96, or the
same as for the previous year. It is doubtful if the actual ratio of successful
cases was so high. In one district the mistake has been made of including
" unknown " cases among those recorded as "successful." This is obviously
wrong. Likewise, it is the acknowledged custom in the same district, when
a vaccine operation fails, not to record it as " unsuccessful;" but to repeat the
operation, and to enter the result as "successful" if it proves to be so at the
second attempt. Such a case should be recorded twice : once as "unsuccessful''
and once as " successful." In many of the districts, the percentage of success-
ful cases claimed by the Vaccinators considerably exceeds the percentage ob-
tained by Civil Surgeons as the result of their examination of a large number of
cases.
5. The total number of re-vaccinations was 26,177; and the percentage of
successful cases 78.21. It need not be remarked that a low ratio of successful
re-vaccinations may be taken as an indication of efficient primary vaccinations.
Many high authorities still maintain that if a first vaccination is properly per-
formed re-vaccination is never afterwards necessary. The number of re-vaccina-
tions for the year 1888-89 shows an increase over the number for the preceding
year of 8,128. In this comparison the numbers for Sonpur and Bamra are
excluded.
6. The average number of vaccine operations performed by each Vaccinator
was 1,734, or slightly less than during the previous year, when it was 1,745.
In some districts, such as Chhindwara, the average number exceeded 3,000 : in
others, such as Damoh, it did not reach 1,500. Yet it does not necessarily follow
that the Vaccinators of Chhindwara worked twice as hard as the Vaccinators of
Damoh. In a district in which the people are opposed to vaccination, or in
which the population is sparse and the villages difficult of access, it may involve
more labour to vaccinate ten persons than to vaccinate twenty in a district in
which those conditions are reversed. The Vaccinators employed in the Feuda-
tory States show a much lower average number of operations performed by each
than the Provincial Vaccinators: the former are credited with an average of only
1,295; and the latter with an average of 1,835 per Vaccinator.
7. Of the 18 districts of these Provinces, 11 show an increase in the num-
ber of primary operations; and 7 show a decrease. The districts in which the
most marked increase took place are those of Sambalpur, Jubbulpore and Nar-
singhpur; and those which show the largest decrease, Raipur and Nimar.