Vaccination Act, 1880

This is a colonial-era public health law that made smallpox vaccination compulsory, and the older practice of inoculation with live smallpox matter illegal, in specific municipalities and cantonments where the Act was formally extended. It originally applied only in parts of Punjab, the North-West Frontier, and Sylhet district, and the extract itself notes the Act was repealed in its application to West Pakistan by a 1958 Ordinance - so it is largely of historical interest rather than current law.

Section 6 prohibits inoculation in any area where the Act applies, and bars a person who has been inoculated from entering such an area for forty days without a doctor's certificate. Sections 9 to 14 set out the vaccination process for children: once an "unprotected" child over six months old has lived in a covered area for a month during the vaccination season, the parent or guardian must bring the child to a vaccinator (Section 9); the child is later inspected to confirm the vaccination succeeded (Sections 10-12), and a child that fails vaccination three times can be certified "insusceptible" and exempted from further attempts (Section 14). Section 15 lets a parent choose between animal-lymph and human-lymph vaccine, with a fee of up to one rupee if choosing the non-default option. Section 16 makes vaccination free of charge except when performed by a private vaccinator.

Section 17 required a Superintendent of Vaccination to identify families who had not complied and to personally investigate and notify them, and Section 18 allowed the matter to be referred to a Magistrate, who could order compliance. Section 22 sets out the penalties: up to three months' imprisonment or a fine up to two hundred rupees for illegal inoculation (Section 6), a fine up to fifty rupees for breaking rules made under the Act, and up to six months' imprisonment or a fine up to one thousand rupees for repeated failure to obey a vaccination order.

Given this 1880 law's age and its noted repeal in West Pakistan since 1958, none of the procedures, fees, or penalties described here should be assumed to reflect current public health law - readers should look to modern immunization legislation for present-day rules.