In photos: Getting vaccinations to the world’s most hard to reach places

December 1, 2019

Children have the power to change the world, yet millions every year don’t reach the age of five because of preventable diseases.

Vaccines are safe, inexpensive and save more than five lives every minute. Yet 1.5 million children still die each year because they haven’t received the right vaccines.

Almost half of the world’s infants who lack vaccinations live in conflict-affected and low-income countries, which are hard to reach.

Ensuring vaccines reach every child is a massive challenge. Every vaccine must be continuously stored at the appropriate temperature from the time they are manufactured until the moment of use. This is called a cold chain.

The journey of a vaccine takes place by air, land and sea, and people around the world overcome enormous challenges to keep the precious vaccines cold and safe so they can be sent to some of the world’s hardest-to-reach places.

PHOTOS (Courtesy of UNICEF)

Mamadou Kassé travels by donkey cart with vaccines for miles to reach remote villages in Mali, where families are waiting with their children. Mamadou is a community health worker in Mali’s increasingly volatile central region of Mopti, where fear, insecurity and a partial ban on travelling by motorcycle between towns have all significantly limited access to lifesaving vaccinations.
Photos Unicef

Far up a hillside on the mountainous Pentecost Island of Vanuatu, General Nurse Dominic, from Melsisi Mini Hospital, treks to deliver vaccinations to remote communities. The weather and the difficult terrain make the delivery of life-changing vaccines extremely challenging.
Unicef/Chute

Dole Singh, who works for a primary health centre in Northern India, carries vaccines via a trolley to reach isolated communities in District Mandi. Unicef/Sharma

A community relay crosses a stream with his bike to vaccinate children in remote areas of the Tanganyika Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Despite significant progress in recent years, many children in the DRC still die before the age of five due to preventable or treatable diseases.
Unicef/Wingi

A team of measles and rubella vaccinators use a hand-drawn ferry to transport a jeep across an icy body of water in Mongolia. They have just returned from a remote area of the ‘soum’ district of Tsagaannur, in the northern Khövsgöl ‘Aimag’ province. In wintery conditions, the team travels by automobile, hand-drawn ferry, reindeer and foot in order to vaccinate children from a nomadic herder community living in the area.
Unicef

Tsehay Haile, a health extension worker in Ethiopia, transports a measles vaccine carrier box on a motorcycle from the Armenia Health post to Gashu Amba sub-village in the North Shoa zone.
Unicef/Ayene

Health workers deliver vaccines as part of a national immunisation campaign against Measles, Rubella and Polio diseases. They are traveling from Baucau health centre to a village in Laga sub district, which is extremely remote and can only be accessed on foot.
Unicef/Soares

Dalal Rudro, a vaccine porter, carrying vaccines in Ramu, a sub-district of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. He delivers vaccine carriers to community health workers in rural areas. They in turn raise awareness about immunisation and vaccinate children against preventable diseases.
Unicef/Krishan

In Aden, Yemen, health workers go door-to-door to provide vaccination against cholera. The first-ever Oral Cholera Vaccination (OCV) campaign in Yemen was launched in 2018., which aims to prevent the resurgence of the world’s largest cholera outbreak. The volatile mix of conflict, a deteriorating economic situation, and little to no access to clean drinking water and sanitation have resulted in more than a million suspected cholera cases since the outbreak began in April 2017.
Unicef/Bafaqeh

Polio vaccinators from the Papua New Guinea Department of Health arrive on a boat at Toskol island in New Ireland Province to vaccinate children against polio. In the last year twenty-six children contracted polio and there is now a country wide vaccination campaign taking place that is being supported by Unicef and partners.
Unicef/Holt

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Recommended Immunization Schedules

These schedules list the age or age range when each vaccine or series of shots is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). If your child (birth through 6 years old) or adolescent (age 7 through 18 years old) has missed any shots, talk to your child’s doctor about getting back on track.

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Vaccine Schedule Based On Your Child’s Birthday
Make sure your child is immunized on schedule. For a complete list of recommended immunizations, just select your child’s birth date.
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The Michigan Care Improvement Registry (MCIR), is an immunization registry managed by MDHHS and reported to by immunization providers. MCIR allows healthcare providers or individuals to access their immunization records regardless of their location in Michigan. This system also helps to track local and state immunization rates of Michigan residents to ensure immunity to vaccine-preventable illnesses. MCIR is a lifespan registry that includes infant through adult records.

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Request a copy of your child’s MCIR record from MDHHS department

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When you’re pregnant, you share everything with your baby. That means when you get vaccines, you aren’t just protecting yourself — you are giving your baby some early protection, too. The CDC has guidelines for the vaccines you and your baby need before, during, and after pregnancy.
From the CDC

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There are things you can do before, during and after your child’s appointment to make them easier and less stressful for both of you.
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Mobile app from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
The Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia created a free mobile app called Vaccines on the Go: What You Should Know so you can access credible, science-based information from wherever and whenever you need it.

Find your local Michigan public health department or immunization clinic
See the directory of Michigan’s 45 local public health departments for more information on your child’s immunization record and where to get them vaccinated.

Other Vaccination Organizations & Advocates

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
The Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia provides complete, up-to-date and reliable information about vaccines to parents and healthcare professionals.

Shot by Shot
Stories of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases is a collection of stories from people who have been touched by vaccine-preventable diseases.

Voices for Vaccines
Voices for Vaccines is a parent-led organization that supports and advocates for on-time vaccination and the reduction of vaccine-preventable disease.

Seattle Mama Doc: A Blog by Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson
Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson is a practicing pediatrician and the mother of two young boys. She practices at The Everett Clinic in Mill Creek, Washington, is on the medical staff at Seattle Children’s and is a clinical instructor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington.

Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases
PKIDs’ mission is to educate the public about infectious diseases, the methods of prevention and transmission, the latest advances in medicine, and the elimination of social stigma borne by the infected; and to assist the families of the children living with hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, or other chronic, viral infectious diseases with emotional, financial and informational support.

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In photos: Getting vaccinations to the world’s most hard to reach places

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