In the late 1960s, villagers in Cameroon’s West Region formed a long line to receive smallpox vaccinations. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Image Library identifies the scene in the caption for image 30565 and credits CDC photographer Robert C. Hogan. The record establishes the period, region and purpose of the wait.
The photograph does not tell us each person’s age, waiting time or medical outcome. It does show that delivering vaccine to a region was only part of the task. People still had to reach a limited point of service and move through it in sequence. The queue turned a large eradication campaign into a series of individual vaccinations.