Bring us your screaming babies

It's been awhile since I've seen so many screaming babies before. Bangladesh's National Immunization day has come and gone, and man, that's a lot of kids! Some are old pros at taking polio vaccination drops, others need a little "encouragement" (some of the workers were telling the babies it was candy, hah!).

Bright and early on the day of the immunizations, the carriers containing the vaccines were transported to and from the field by any means available.



The polio vaccine is temperature sensitive, which means there needs to be an icepack to keep it cold enough in 90 degree temperatures.

Giving polio drops kinda reminded me of mother birds feeding their chicks for some odd reason.



This time around, vitamin A to combat the effect of measles as well as a tablet for worms was given.


The thing that makes vaccinations easier to administer is that people are very vigilant about vaccinating their kids. In fact, we actually had to mark the kids fingers with a sharpie to prevent mothers trying to get back in line and vaccinate them again!

Most kids were experienced pros at the process. Older siblings also brought in the youngsters to be vaccinated.


For the rest of the week, workers also went house to house looking for kids to vaccinate who didn't make it to the centers for whatever reason. The goal was to find each and every kid. This was actually one of the more interesting things about last week. I had the chance to see a side of rural Bangladesh that other people rarely get the opportunity to do so. It's a very peaceful country, people are incredibly friendly. In some areas, women still wear burquas, and they actually cover themselves and flee inside when an unknown man is within sight. Needless to say, most of the talking was through closed doors and shuttered screens. We actually went to some "hard to reach" areas on Hitaya Island, more about the journey there in a bit.
"Bring us your crying naked kids to vaccinate, please."


All in all, it was a rewarding process. Polio spreads from unsanitary conditions, and as you can tell from some of the neighborhoods that vaccination sites were set up at, they definitely exist in Bangladesh!