Yesterday I was in Deschappelles, Haiti about three hours north of Port-au-Prince. Deschappelles is where the largest regional hospital, Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, is and has been for nearly 60 years. It serves a population of 350,000 and routinely takes in patients from outside of the region.

In addition to hospital services Hôpital Albert Schweitzer also arranges and manages 280 mobile health posts conducted by health agents every month throughout the mountainous region. I attended one of those health posts on Monday during World Immunization Week to see babies and expectant women receive their vaccinations.

Below are photos from the day. Babies received oral polio and the pentavalent vaccine. The pentavalent vaccine, which protects against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) which causes pneumonia and meningitis, was first introduced in Haiti in 2013. Expectant mothers received the tetanus vaccine.

About 25 mothers showed up yesterday for their monthly health post visit as well as four expectant mothers who accompanied their children.