El Subcentro de Cochapamba – A day on the streets

For the third and final day with Dra. Sancho we went around the neighborhood verifying that all the children have been vaccinated.  We started at the clinic.  There was a group of about eight people that morning including doctors, nurses and volunteers ready to go out on this door-to-door  vaccination campaign.  After a brief discussion on what to look for, we separated into groups.  Daniel and I went with Dra. Sancho.  

 She drove us a short way to a different part of the neighborhood and then we proceeded to go door-to-door asking if there were any children and if they could present their vaccination cards.  The problem was that this was a weekday and most kids are in school or daycare on weekdays.  There weren’t very many houses which had people inside let alone children with vaccination cards available.  So we also went to a couple schools and a daycare center to talk with the people in charge about verifying vaccinations through examining all of the children’s vaccination cards.  All and all, I found this day to be quite frustrating because I was not witnessing any medical procedures nor was I helping in any way.  There wasn’t all that many places to go to and Dra. Sancho did not have us split up among the three of us.  Therefore, Daniel and I were basically just following her around.  It wasn’t a very good use of my time and frankly it didn’t seem to be a very good use of Dra. Sancho’s time either.  She admitted to the both of us that Friday was not a good day to be doing this and that she would probably have to go out on Saturday as well.  Quite frankly I didn’t understand why the government had an educated doctor as herself doing this job when it seemed much more suited for a social worker.  But despite all of my disillusionment about the healthcare system of Ecuador, this experience did serve to show me that Ecuador is committed to making sure that all children are sufficiently vaccinated.  In Ecuador they vaccinate for everything that we do in the United State and then some including:  MMR, Td, Hep A, Hep B.  They also require vaccinations for varicella (chicken pox) and yellow fever which are not commonly required in the U.S.

 To follow are a picture of me in front of the clinic and another picture with me, Daniel, and Dra. Sancho.