"The vaccine campaign of the Brazilian government was a Herculean effort and a resounding success. In the two years of the [meningcoccal meningitis] epidemic, health authorities succeeded in vaccinating between sixty and seventy million people, approximately 70 percent of the total population in 1974. That so many lives were saved and so many children spared cruel disfigurement, can only be considered cause for rejoicing. The tragic note was that the vaccination campaign was not begun soon enough. As many as five to ten thousand people lost their lives by the time we started"-

Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC