To the preceding instances, which are rather old now, must be added
the following more recent report, from the _Indian Medical Gazette_,
September 1901:--
"We are glad to see, from a paragraph in the Report of the
Sanitary Commissioner for Bengal (Major H. J. Dyson, I.M.S.,
F.R.C.S.), that an increased number of anti-cholera inoculations
were performed during the year 1900. Assistant-Surgeon G. C.
Mukerjee, who was in charge of this work, reports that in the
Puralia Coolie Depot no less than 13,291 persons were inoculated
against cholera, including over 1000 children. All these cases
of inoculation were among labour emigrants proceeding to the
tea-gardens of Assam and Cachar. The employers of labour are
beginning to realise the value of cholera inoculation. It is
unfortunately not always easy, or even possible, to follow up
the after-history of persons inoculated; but Major Dyson has
quoted a table, received from the Superintendent of Emigration,
which shows the number of cases among the inoculated and the
non-inoculated at Goalundo. From this table, it is seen that out
of 1527 non-inoculated coolies, who passed through Goalundo, 33,
or 2.09 per cent., got cholera; whereas of 873 inoculated
coolies, only 2, or 0.2 per cent., were attacked by the disease;
that is, the unprotected suffered about ten times as much as the
inoculated. Assistant-Surgeon Mukerjee also reports that during
his cold-weather tour he passed through some villages in the
Manbhum district, in which he had practised inoculation the
previous year: and, though there had been epidemics of cholera
in them, the inoculated persons escaped. They came to him in
numbers, stating that they owed their safety to the
inoculation."
Of course, the preventive treatment touches points only here and there
on the map of India, with its 300,000,000 people. Probably it will
never become so general in India as vaccination. Cholera in India
recalls what Ambroise Paré, more than 400 years ago, wrote of the
plague, "Here in Paris it is always with us." But, wherever preventive
inoculation has been done, there it has done good.
The _Medical Annual_ for 1905 contains an account of some preventive
inoculations recently made during an epidemic in Japan. Among the
inoculated, the attack-rate was much lower than among the
uninoculated; and the mortality was 45.5 per cent., as against 75 per
cent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account