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LCHD/CHC H1N1 Minority Populations Outreach Efforts - Pfister
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We would like to inform the board about specific H1N1 outreach efforts during the LCHD/CHC 2009-2010 H1N1 vaccination campaign. While minority populations were not a specific target group, there are generally a number of barriers to vaccination, such as language, culture and others reasons. Therefore, the department felt an extra effort was needed to reach out to these citizens.
Overall, our department received 121,330 vaccine doses; 112,272 doses were distributed to department clinics or forwarded to hospitals, special education districts, other healthcare providers, school vaccination clinics assisted by the department and many other community partners (the full report is available upon request). In particular, our efforts included special minority outreach clinics such as three Mexican Consulate clinics and three faith-based clinics organized for our African American citizens.
Please note that the following data regarding the racial/ethnic group membership reported by those who received vaccinations should be interpreted with caution. This is due to inaccuracies in self-reporting or recording an individual’s race or ethnicity.
Based on data from our LCHD/CHC H1N1 clinics by race, of approximately 28,000 individuals vaccinated, about 50% were members of minority groups including about 4% African Americans (this group accounts for about 7% of the county population). By ethnicity, Hispanics accounted for about 41% of those vaccinated (this group represents about 17% of county population).
From the beginning of this campaign, we established a vaccination clinic in North Chicago which has a sizable African American population. In addition, by working through the faith community, we deployed three clinics during February and March of 2010 at three predominately African American churches. However, despite combined efforts, the turnout was rather low with a total of 54 people receiving vaccinations.
Also during February and March, 2010, working collaboratively with the Mexican Consulate and the Illinois Department of Public Health, we established three clinics in Lake County; two at the Belvidere Discount Mall in Waukegan and one at the New Hope Christian Fellowship Church in Mundelein. At these clinics we were able to vaccinate 1,215 individuals.
In sum, our experience with reaching out to our minority communities underscored the need to be aware of existing cultural and other differences that can create barriers to vaccination when planning mass prophylaxis campaigns in the future.
Suggested Motion
None, informational only.