Wang Chunsheng is a vaccination doctor at Xi’an county, China's central Hunan Province. His job is vaccinating children in the mountains.

Epidemics have always been a major threaten to public health around the world. For children, who are more likely to catch diseases due to lower immunity, the negative impact could last life-long, or even be fatal.

The fight against pediatric epidemics began in the early days of New China. In 2005, Regulations on Administration of Vaccines’ Circulation and Vaccination came into force. The regulations categorized the vaccines into Class 1: free and “mandatory”, and Class 2: self-paid and voluntary. It also provided a detailed vaccination timetable for new-born babies. All these measurements effectively reduced the risk of children contracting common epidemic diseases, including tuberculosis, poliomyelitis and DPT, etc.

However, promoting vaccination in rural areas is no easy job. During his career, Wang Chunsheng has encountered quite a few families that refused to cooperate.

“The parents believed that when their children got sick, it would be the punishment of gods. They won’t accept any injections when the children remain healthy.”

To persuade them, Wang Chunsheng had to visit the families more than once. Every time he would bring some commodities for the parents and sweets for the children, hoping that the small gifts would help him win their trust.

Xi’an county situates in Wuling Mountains, where live more than 3,000 families. Before the roads were built, it would take a month to travel around the whole community. The situation only improved in the late 1990s. Today, Wang Chunsheng still keep going over the mountains to vaccinate the children.

The reason why it means a lot to him, is because he has witnessed a break out of measles in 1974. In a village of 700 residents, more than 360 were infected. In the end, about 20 children passed away. As a doctor who participated in the aid, his heart ached: “That’s why epidemic prevention is so important.”

Wang Chunsheng asked the parents: “If your children’s disease was truly a punishment from gods, how come others suffered the same? Why would it affect so many people? It’s in fact a contagious disease caused by a kind of virus.” Gradually, more and more parents chose to believe him and let him do the injection.

Wang Chunsheng has been working in the county for 38 years. Many of the residents here were actually vaccinated by him when they were young. Now they entrust him with their children.

During these years, Wang Chunsheng has walked in the mountains for more than 100,000 km. 4 bicycles and 5 motorcycles were scrapped when he vaccinated over 6,000 children. For the last decade, there was not even a single case of measles, JE or meningitis, and the county has witnessed no break out of major epidemics or public health emergencies.

Reaching the age of retirement, Wang Chunsheng decided to keep doing his job: “Children are the future of the country. I hope every one of them could grow up healthily.”