Ciro de Quadras

摘要

In the 1960s and 1970s, throughout Latin America, only 5 -15 % of children were vaccinated, usually only if they lived near a health centre (vast areas did not have one) and only when that health centre was not too busy. When an outbreak of smallpox erupted in a remote area of the Amazon, a young doctor, Ciro de Quadros, on his first tour of duty after qualifying, decided to try to contain the outbreak himself, without waiting for the government to organise a vaccination campaign. With a car, a driver, and a vaccinator, he convinced local communities to work with him to spot new cases quickly, track down everyone who might have had contact with the patient, and vaccinate these people. In less than a year, smallpox was no longer present in an area inhabited by eight million people.