"Immunize MV":
An Outreach Effort About the Benefits
of Childhood Immunization

Immunize MV is a new initiative born of an internship that brought Varci Carvalho, a graduate of the Island high school and a student at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, to work this summer with Dave Caron, director of Martha's Vineyard Hospital pharmacy.

The fruits of the internship, sponsored by the Vision Fellowship, are a new documentary video and a set of educational brochures encouraging Island parents to immunize their children against dangerous infectious diseases.

Vaccines use dead or weakened versions of a germ to stimulate the human body so it creates antibodies that protect against the real (and sometimes deadly) thing. As a play-acting doctor explains in the Immunize MV video: "In a way, the body gets a chance to practice fighting the disease."

Serious side-effects of vaccinations are rare, says Mr. Caron, and choosing to avoid that tiny risk means accepting a far greater one.

"This past year we saw an outbreak of pertussis pneumonia (whooping cough), and we almost had a death associated with it. It was a child who hadn't been vaccinated. And in the Island schools last year we had an outbreak of chicken pox that was very worrisome."

He concludes: "At the outset of this project, we agreed that if we can just change the perspective of one person, then we've accomplished something. We've already had conversations in the hallways of the Hospital and with folks who have read these brochures. We're engaging people in conversation, and that's all we're trying to do."