School Vaccinations

May 29, 2012

               The Ministerio de Salud, or health department, of Panama is very focused on health promotion and disease prevention.  Therefore, people's immunizations are very closely watched and individuals are literally tracked down to their homes if they miss one.  Health care workers are also responsible for going to the schools in their area and vaccinating the children.  Today, it was flu shot day, and we got to help.  We walked from the clinic (the school is right up the road) and set up several tables.  A couple of nurses from the clinic and four of us were responsible for administering the vaccine while Jessie and several other staff members did the accompanying paperwork.  It was pretty much a never ending assembly line.   By lunch time we had each vaccinated an entire grade amounting to over 60 students apiece. Unfortunately, during the chaos, one of my classmates accidentally stuck herself with one of the needles and needed to be taken back to San Felix for blood work and prophylactic antiviral treatment.  So it was a very short, but very productive day.