7

of small-pox occurred during the
year. This point will be referred to
again later in this report. But while the
primary and re-vaccinations as a whole,
showed an excess over those of the pre-
vious year, the former outnumbered the
latter by 44,244 in 1927-28 in 15 districts
as follows :—

There may be some excuse for the last
five districts named above for this reduc-
tion in re-vaccinations, because the num-
ber of deaths from small-pox was not
so high there as to afford inducement to
the people to get themselves re-vaccin-
ated, but the state of affairs in the
other districts of the list is extremely
regrettable, in view of the serious out-
breaks of small-pox epidemics in those
localities. Unfortunately greater atten-
tion has been paid till quite recently to
primary vaccination, ignoring re-vaccina-
tion to a great extent. A glance at the
diagram on page 8 will show that pri-
mary vaccination alone which has its
own advantage on other occasions has
never been able to control an epidemic of
small-pox. Too much stress therefore
cannot be laid on the importance of
intensive campaigns of re-vaccination
especially during an epidemic of small-
pox and it is expected that this will not
be lost sight of in future.

7. Vaccination in municipalities.—
From the following statement it would
appear that compared with the previous
year, municipalities in 9 districts only
but of 26 showed increase in their pri-
mary vaccinations, while in 13 districts
they recorded rise in re-vaccinations. In
all the rest there was a falling off in the
number of both primary and re-vaccina-
tions. The decrease in re-vaccinations is
deplorable in the face of prevalence of
small-pox in these places, as shown in the
last column of the subjoined statement,
especially in the municipalities of the
districts of Howrah, Murshidabad,
Khulna and Pabna.

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