Special Bulletin: Outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough) in California
For Immediate Attention:
There is a critical outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough) in California: it is classified now as an epidemic. Five infants, all Latino, have died. This is due to unrecognized pertussis in older children and adults which then infects babies before they’ve had a chance to get their shots. PLEASE spread the word through every mechanism you have that it is critical to get Tdap in adolescents and adults and to get children immunized properly. This months ImmuNews includes a number of resources on Pertussis (Whopping Cough).

Health Outreach Partners’ fourth national needs assessment of farmworker health outreach. This groundbreaking report provides a compelling summary of national data focused solely on farmworker outreach programs and the farmworker communities they serve. This is the only project of its kind that provides a national snapshot on the needs of farmworker health outreach programs.  Attached you will find a press release with additional details concerning this important report.

We encourage you to share this report with your peers by:

• Posting a link to the report in the “news” or “resource” sections of your website;
• Circulating the attached press release via your listservs; and/or
• Announcing this report in your upcoming organizational newsletter.

The valuable data included in this report can be leveraged for reporting purposes, funding proposals, program planning, and advocacy efforts to benefit the migrant and seasonal farmworker population.

This resource from the California Department of Public Health provides facts, information for health professionals,  data and surveillance, vaccine, and prevention.

This resource from the CDC provides an overview of Pertussis, also known as the Whooping Cough. Topics include symptoms, how its spread, Pertussis in the US and prevention measures.

It Takes the Whole Team: Staff Roles in ImmunizationWelcome to Immu-News, the Immunization Initiatives listserv, a monthly resource for the community of participants in this project.Our topic for the month is It Takes the Whole Team:  Staff Roles in Immunization.  As you know, we’ve been calling each of the Project clinics over the last months and wanted to share with you some interesting ideas about who plays what part in immunization at our clinics.Of course, we all think immediately about the providers and nurses, the people most likely to administer the vaccines.  But who orders the vaccines, who checks the supplies, who keeps the logs, who books the appointments, who enters the data, who tracks it, and who encourages the clients to come in to the clinic to get the shot?It could be at some clinics that one or two people do most or all of these jobs, while at other clinics, they may be divided up among three or four or more people.  What works at your clinic and why?  Does the hand that gives the shot know what the other hands are doing?  How is recording and tracking immunization data a team effort? How can the receptionist, the billing clerk, and the outreach worker all be a crucial part of the picture?Read on for information about the following:

1. Experience: A checklist of all the different tasks necessary to arrive at your clinic’s immunization goals, gathered from our recent phone calls to you.
2. Research: the collaborative approach--how successful are systems that incorporate the receptionist or the outreach worker into the immunization goals of the clinic?

 Introductory overview of occupational health policy by Farmworker Justice.

To address the critical need for relevant information about the Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker (MSFW) population nationwide, the Migrant Clinicians Network developed an innovative project to test a set of methodologies for collecting and analyzing MSFW data. The methods used in this project will enhance planning capability for health services by gathering up-to-date, locally specific descriptive profiles of the MSFW population eligible for health care services and provide a mechanism to determine future trends that can affect health services delivery and formulation of health care plans, staffing decisions, outreach activities, preventive care emphases, budgeting and appropriate service hours. The methodologies tested employ systems that can be self-sustaining, providing continual, timely updates at a local level where such information is most useful. The systems foster collaboration between local service providers, encouraging Migrant Health Centers (MHCs) and others who serve the MSFW population to work together to share information which can be beneficial to all.

This table for healthcare providers and planners provides information related to spacing between the two doses of 2009 H1N1 vaccine for children 6 months through 9 years of age and for administration of 2009 H1N1 vaccine with seasonal influenza and other vaccines.

This table for healthcare providers and planners provides information related to administration of 2009 H1N1 vaccine with seasonal influenza and other vaccines.

This hour long webcast features Jennie McLaurin, MD, MPH – a former medical director of a migrant and community health center and a pediatrician with over 20 years of practice serving farmworker and immigrant populations.

Our members enjoy professional support, educational programs, and numerous opportunities for participation in association decision making. With your support, we can carry out our mission to advance the art and science of dental hygiene, and to promote the highest standards of education and practice in the profession.