Powerful photo essays on success of rotavirus vaccine in Nicaragua

By Joshua | October 3rd, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Check out these two photo essays by internationally acclaimed photojournalist Brent Stirton:

“Tracing One Rotavirus Vaccine’s Winding Path Through Nicaragua”

and

“Protecting Children From Rotavirus, One Vaccine at a Time”

Before this summer, I’d never heard of the rotavirus, which hospitalizes 75,000 children annually in Latin America. Then I accompanied a film crew and still photographer whose job was to illustrate the success of the vaccine in Nicaragua. When it was introduced in 2006, it was the first time in history that a drug like this was rolled out in the developing world the same time as it was approved in the United States. In Nicaragua, the vaccine is already saving lives. The first short film that resulted, “A Vaccine’s Remarkable Impact”, tells this story of this success. It’s all a part of the Living Proof Project, an effort by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to refocus the discussion on global health to positivity and success stories in order to celebrate—and replicate—what can be accomplished right now.