Yolanda Elvira Gómez is the nurse who cares for the people of Guaycurú Island, where she lives most of the month. When asked how long she has been working on the island, she answers with the exact date assigned as a health agent: “Since February 11, 2003.”
Once a month he returns to Reconquista for a few days to visit relatives and look for supplies. But the river sometimes marks that time of return: “I return if the Paraná is calm to travel, and if not, I have to wait, because it is beautiful, but it is also very tight; and if there is wind, I prefer to wait,” he says.
A vaccine against dengue required training for the Provincial Immunization Program teams, as happens every time a new strategy is implemented, and especially since this vaccine has to be recreated with a thinner, before it is installed, which involves following some previous steps. That is why this time, Yoli Juana Aguirre, from the Guadalupe Neighborhood Health Center, in Reconquista, received a trained colleague who was able to accompany her to implement a strategy that was appropriate for the reality of her region.
Knowledge
Together they toured the houses, with the register where those born between 2005 and 2009 are marked. He knows each one very well and without consulting, he updates the list: he recognizes those who moved to Cecilio Echeverría, in Corrientes, to study or work and who do not to return; And of those that are left, he knows when he will get them, when those in high school go to school, if they go fishing or look after the livestock, and it will take them a while to come back . “Here on the island there are children who are goddesses of water of relief, as they say, because I am Catholic and so are they, and they ask me that they can be Catholic,” she says explaining the closeness of the 60. families she serves. “I have about 20 godchildren, so every time it’s their birthday they always get a present.”
The island’s schedule is also different from the city’s schedule because of another factor that would make it more difficult to reach the population that receives the vaccine. To reach each family, you must travel along the paths opened by the islands, some open to the sky and others covered by the island’s vegetation, where the carayá monkeys call. Yolanda knows how to get everywhere: from the stilt houses built in areas that can flood when the Paraná rises; like those raised on high ground.
For Juana, the vaccination on Guaycurú Island was “a different experience than what we do in the health centers I know. Here they received us at the School, then we met Yolanda and we went from house to house, walking, which is different from what is done in the city. That’s the rich thing about going to the field.” She knows the importance of her work because, as she herself repeats, “vaccines save lives,” but in the case of dengue she also highlights “the need for care at the house, the use of replacement, removal of waste, which is repetitive. – important, throwing away the remaining water, especially these days when it rained because the mosquito is looking for clean water to lay its eggs. “
2024-10-19 13:08:00
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