Day 235: Shots

Today's Mission: Vaccinate 600 soldiers in 1 day, 4 vaccines per soldier = 2400 vaccines

This was a mission that I had discussed with my Afghan counterparts weeks ago and in great detail. My medics and I decided to pay them a visit 2 days prior to the proposed vaccination clinic day to see if they had hashed out a plan to administer the vaccines. Was there a plan? Of course not! So we huddled together and discussed a plan to run an efficient shot line, and we involved every Afghan medic we could find to prepare the vaccinations in syringes prior to vaccination day which was a total of 2400 vaccines.

Team ANA Preparing the Vaccines

Long story short, every Afghan medic in the clinic ensured that the vaccines were prepared and the clinic was ready for the soldiers. Talk about pulling together as a team. I think my US medics and I were way more panicked than the Afghan Army medics as 600 soldiers was a huge number for a small clinic staff to handle all at once. But, if they were not going to panic, then why should we? All doubts aside, on vaccination day we found that the ANA medics were ready for action with all vaccines drawn up and ready for swift administration.

BAM!!...Let's Get to Work!

ANA Medic Gul Rahman administering Oral Polio Vaccine

Mission Complete: All 608 ANA recruits were successfully vaccinated in a matter of 4 hours. Talk about a preventative medical team built on speed and efficiency. Strong work!