Vaccination Clinic

(I do not know a few names and dates, so in there place I have put lines. Please excuse this. )

A collaboration of different healthcare providers in Pune, India is making a difference in the lives of individuals who would otherwise not have access to healthcare by providing wellness checks, medications, treatments, and education at little to no cost. In India, the government provides many vaccines free of charge to anyone who makes the effort to get them. Some of the vaccines, such as the Polio vaccine are very important, and so outreach campaigns will often occur in community centers to make sure everyone gets vaccinated. Unfortunately, there are a few vaccines, which the population could benefit from, but that the government finds too expensive to administer free of charge; these include: MMR, Hib, Typhoid, and Pneumococcous vaccine. In an area where 400 families share 8 toilets, diseases run rampant. The importance of preventative versus palliative medicine can be appreciated in such situations, and the inclusion of all the available vaccines to protect a child is very important. In thirteen different slum communities around Pune, ____ has decided to make some of these vaccines available at a largely reduced cost.

The vaccination clinic began on Sunday the 21st of June 2009. The morning was still cool due to the monsoon rains, which had arrived the day before. Never the less, the temperature was expected to rise to a warm 90 degrees Fahrenheit by the afternoon, making the absence of a fan due to power cuts that much more miserable. Soon around 20 people gathered to help with the tasks of the vaccine clinic. Mothers and their children began filtering to each of the tables where the different vaccines were being administered. Three vaccines, MMR, Typhoid, and Hib each had their own table with multiple healthcare workers as well as volunteers. The patients checked in outside where their health records would be checked and they would be instructed on which vaccines they needed to get for each of their children. The cost for the vaccinations was 50 Rupees per child. One of the vaccines being given costs over 500 Rupees alone so the reduction in cost is significant.

Soon the room begins to warm up as more and more people fill the floor. Looking around volunteers can be seen preparing vacc

inations, restocking supplies, and restraining screaming children whose anxiety has overcomes them. Tea and coffee are distributed to the workers as they scurry around. Each patient’s health record must be checked and the date of the given vaccine must be recorded. Some of the children get all three vaccines while others get only one. There is a wide range of emotion; some of the children seem un-phased by the screams of near by injection recipients, while others are only further convinced that what’s about to happen to them is going to be a painful, and potentially deadly experience. Over two hours pass and one can barley cross from one side of the room to the other. The noise level has maximized as infants and children both scream out of fear. There seems to be very little order or control over the situation, but each vaccine is given, decreasing the worry of a sick child in each parents mind.

The chaos subsides as quickly as it arrived. Somewhere around 300 children are vaccinated and the group begins to clean up a room which hours before was empty, quiet, and clean. The team sits down for a moment of relaxation. Everyone is given a sandwich, which is quickly devoured as talk of the next days work begins.

There are 4million people living in Pune, 70 percent of them live in slums. Public funding for healthcare is far below the countries boasting top healthcare systems. Without the work of groups such as ____, healthcare would be in a much poorer state of desperation.