Perspectives in Health Magazine
The Magazine of the Pan American Health Organization
Volume 8, Number 2, 2003

8:15 a.m.

A voice from a distant megaphone at first sounds like someone hawking oranges or pineapples. We see a red truck turn the corner and head in our direction. The megaphone is on its roof. The voice becomes louder and clearer: "Vaccination Week in the Americas....Protect your children....It’s free.…Health workers will come to your house or you can take your children to the health center." The message is repeated over and over. We signal to the truck, and it stops next to our jeep. The campaign poster is affixed to each of its doors. A young nurse tells us, without our asking, "Marita, Lourdes and Joaquín are vaccinating on the next street. Go straight ahead and turn left at the green house on the corner."

We find them there, unmistakable in their white coats, each with an ice chest in one hand and a notebook in the other. We get out of the jeep and walk toward them. We meet as they are knocking on the door of a small wood-frame house. A young woman opens the door timidly. Without hesitation, the nurses get right to the point: "Good morning. We are carrying out a vaccination campaign. Are there children in this home? Are you a mother? May we come in?"

Seconds later we’re all in the tiny living room of the modest home. Everything is tidy and clean. While Lourdes reviews the child’s vaccination card, Marita vaccinates the mother. She explains that they are also giving tetanus vaccines to mothers and women of childbearing age. From outside the house, we hear the sounds of a gathering crowd. "Where is that kid? Has anyone seen Chinto?"

He finally appears, sweating and surprised to see so many people in his house. Chinto is 4 years old, with alert eyes, cinnamon-colored skin and jet-black hair. It doesn’t take long for him to figure out what’s happening. He glances at the door, planning his escape, but it’s too late. His mother holds him gently but firmly in her arms.

Now Lourdes explains to the young woman what the pentavalent vaccine is. Chinto fixes his eyes on his mother’s face as she gently strokes him. He stops resisting and takes his shot with dignity. Joaquín, a community volunteer, rewards the brave boy with a sticker on his Tshirt, confirming that he has been vaccinated. As we say goodbye, we leave a mark on the frame of the outside door, with the owner’s permission. Now the next campaign workers will know the children in this house have already been vaccinated.

The three health workers continue their door-to-door mission beneath the hot sun. We follow them for several hours, until Don Rafael reminds us that we had promised to return to the health center.

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