7th triennial report of vaccination in Bengal.

  • Bengal (India)
Date:
[1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: 7th triennial report of vaccination in Bengal. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/50 (page 7)
    11. During tlie past year the total number of deaths from small-pox in the Province was 31,614, against 23,543 of 1906-07 Deaths from small-por. and 12)090 of 1905-06, the ratio of deaths per 1,000 of the population being *59, against *43 and *22 of 1906-07 and 1905-06. The largest number of deaths was recorded in the districts of Gaya (3,987), Patna (2,758), Bhagalpur (2,627), Puri (2,284), Monghyr (2,074), 24-Parganas (1,950), Midnapore (1,456), Shahabad (1,400,) Balasore (1,347), Sonthal Parganas (1,196), Murshidabad (1,147), Burdwan (1,099), Birbhum (926), Calcutta (812), Purnea (772), Hooghly (75 D, Saran(719), Champaran (698), and Cuttack (614), while the mortality was lowest in the districts of Darjeeling (9), Khulna (65), Singhbhum (78), Sambalpur (93), and Palamau(93). Epidemic outbreaks of small-pox in a district have a sort of periodicity, it being more or less prevalent in epidemic form once in five years. The only means of eradicating the disease is the introduction of the Compulsory Vaccination Act throughout the Province, which under present circumstances is quite out of the question. Out of 31,614 persons who succumbed to this disease as noted above, 13,515 were reported as protected by vaccination and 11,943 unprotected, while in 6,156 cases nothing could be ascertainad. These figures being reported by chaukidars, cannot be relied on as accurate. 12. In the Animal Vaccination Depots at Calcutta and Darjeeling, the . A average number of calves vaccinated during the Ammal Vaccination epots. period underreport was 1,438 and 223 respectively, against 795 and 223 of the previous triennial period. The average quantity of lanoline paste in grains manufactured was 278,340 and 67,801 respectively against 127,2\3 and 50,245 during 1903-1905. The increased outturn of the Calcutta Depot is due to the abolition of arm-to-arm vaccination and the general introduction of lanoline lymph vaccination in the districts of the Presidency, Burdwan, and Orissa Divisions under Government order No. 2977S., dated the 30th December 1905. But the lymph supply of the Darjeeling Dep6t is almost stationary, as it is not capable of further extension. For this reason I submitted a proposal to Government last year to start another vaccination depot at Ranchi with a view to extend the lymph supply of the Bihar and Chota Nagpur districts with the ultimate object of supplanting arm-to arm vaccination altogether in those regions as quickly as possible. The question has been kept in abeyance, as it is intended to introduce a new and more expeditious method of lymph preparation, which, if successful, might obviate the necessity of constructing a new depot. This matter is at present under my consideration. During the year 1906 07 there was a failure in the lymph supply of the Darjeeling Depot owing to deterioration of the quality of the lymph. This caused much inconvenience, especially as there was at the time an epidemic outbreak of small-pox in Darjeeling. Prompt measures were, however, adopted to re-establish the lymph, but it was not until a new strain of lymph was introduced which had lately arrived from England and which had been rendered more potent by passage through rabbits that the lymph was brought to a high standard of efficiency. Captain D. Munro, i.m.s., Officiating Deputy Sanitary Commissioner, Bengal and Orissa Circle, by introducing the routine method of passing the lymph frequently through rabbits, both in the Calcutta and the Darjeeling Depots, has ensured the quality of the lymph remaining good. He has also introduced the custom of testing the prepared paste on rabbits so as to ensure the lymph being potent when issued from the depot. During the past year a series of experiments was conducted by Captain Munro, i.m.s., to test the efficacy of the two different kinds of lymph, viz., lanoline lymph and glycerinated lymph, and he was impressed with the superiority of the latter variety. I quote below two extracts from Captain Munro’s reports on the experiments, as they may be of interest:— “ With the exception of tubes 7, 8, and 9 of Calcutta lymph the results were very good— indeed, the Calcutta lymph which had been exposed to heat for five weeks, reaoted much better than the Darjeeling lymph which had been stored in comparative coolness. I can offer no explanation as to why the third set of tubes from Calcutta was not so successful as the others. The glycerine was obviously exercising its inhibitive effect on extraneous organ¬ isms originally present. Witness 15 colonies on the plate from tubes 7, 8, and 9 as against 41 from tubes 4, 5, and 6. That the virus was not weakened, is shown by the results