Health workers in Kashmir dared to freeze vaccinations in remote villages | Gallery News

In one Indian village in Kashmir, where medical worker Masrat Farid carries his bag with the vaccine on a cold winter morning when a hurricane sweeps through the snow.

She is one of the health workers working from door to door in the area to vaccinate young people between the ages of 15 and 18 and provide an inspiring shot to people over the age of 60 with health problems as part of a new vaccine launched this month. .

“We have to fight this disease. We have to move on, “Farid said as he walked through knee-deep snow in Gagangir, a small hut in the middle of the Himalayan jungle.

Farid and his colleagues have vaccinated thousands of people over the past year, especially in villages that reach long distances through mountainous terrain.

But cooler climates and permanent snowstorms are not the only barriers.

Some residents are still skeptical of vaccinations and find their confidence more difficult than courage in the Himalayan winter.

“Many young girls are procrastinating because of their ignorance and distrust,” says Farid. He was referring to the false belief that the vaccine could affect or prevent pregnancy.

“We not only protect them from coronavirus, we also need to educate them about the vaccine to make them believe,” he said.

The supplements, which Indian health authorities call “immunizations”, are being offered to high-risk groups who were among the first to be vaccinated last year and whose immunity may be reduced.

Jaffar Ali, a health worker, said the biggest problem so far this year was bad weather – unlike last year when some of his colleagues were tortured by members of the public during the campaign, as many people thought the shooting caused weakening, serious problems or even death.

To date, health officials have vaccinated more than 72 percent of eligible people out of a population of 14 million in the region, according to government sources.

Health officials recently visited some villages that had been evacuated by nearby towns because of snow and vaccination of the local population, including Khag, a forest village where most people are ethnic and live in houses built of mud, stone or wood.

Arsha Begum, a blind elderly woman, was grateful when a medical team went to her home and shot her in her home.

“I could not go to the hospital this bad season. I thank them very much, ”he said.