California Department of Public Health, Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control has identified several cases of mercury toxicity linked to the use of adulterated, unlabelled face creams in the Latino community.
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- CDPH_Health_Alert_Mercury_Skin_Cream_2010.pdf (103.47 KB)
- Patient_Education_MercuryCream_Eng_Esp_2010.pdf (219.79 KB)
Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit provides step-by-step guidance and tools for physicians and other primary care health professionals to use in assessing a practice and making changes to promote better understanding for clients of all literacy levels. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality commissioned the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to produce the toolkit. Contents include tools for practice change, video, documents, Internet resources, testimonials from a practice, tips, and key points. Topics include an overview of health literacy universal precautions, steps to implement the toolkit, and instructions on identifying and addressing areas that need improvement (spoken and written communication, self-management and empowerment, and supportive systems). The appendix contains resources such as forms, PowerPoint presentations, worksheets, and posters that support the implementation of the tools.
The Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) has recently released its fall issue of Needle Tips, http://www.immunize.org/nt with news and information for all health professionals who give vaccines. Also available is Vaccinate Adults, http://www.immunize.org/va a condensed version ofNeedle Tips for those who work only with adult patients.
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- Immunews_Oct09_bonus.pdf (48.73 KB)
Our topic for the month is H1N1 vaccinations. Dealing with both seasonal flu vaccinations and the constant swirl of information, availability, and updates around the H1N1 vaccine has made this a challenging season flu season for providers. We offer direct links to several CDC web pages and one patient flyer from the CDC.
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- Immunews_Nov09.pdf (75.9 KB)
Again, Dr. Deborah Wexler, the Executive Director of the Immunization Action Coalition provides further reading and research on the topic of parental hesitation. In the second half, we take a brief look at adults specifically: why do adults hesitate to receive vaccines? Are these barriers the same as for parents on behalf of their children? Please feel free to send responses, comments, thoughts, and ideas to the listserv administrator atkath@healthletter.com. If you send comments, we will follow up with your responses and ideas in the next listserv.
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- Immunews_Oct09.pdf (79.58 KB)
FDA Alert: Conusmers, especially pregnant or breastfeeding women, should avoid consuming a product called “Nzu”, taken as a traditional remedy for morning sickness, because of the potential health risks from high levels of lead and arsenic.
First of all, this month we offer some reminders for resources that are available to help you navigate, with your clients, between immunization requirements in the US and those from neighboring Mexico. Second, we guide you to a link on the World Health Organization website where you can check other countries’ immunization requirements and schedules. This may give you a starting point for understanding your migrant clients’ immunization histories. Third, we offer a sample bi-lingual parent-held pediatric vaccine record. Remember, “the most reliable source of vaccine information on any particular individual is that individual! Contrary to popular belief, parents DO carry portable vaccination records when given them. This is particularly true for immigrant families, who are used to carrying important documents and who realize the potential of revaccination if records are unavailable to the local provider.” Jennie McLaurin, MD Finally, in the season of giving, our gift offer to the clinics participating in Immunization Initiatives send us the English patient-held vaccine record you use for your clients, and we will translate it into Spanish. We offer this first to the clinics participating in Immunization Initiatives, and to the first six clinics who contact us. Email the listserv administrator to make arrangements at kath@healthletter.com
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- immunews_Dec09_0.pdf (1015.64 KB)
The sourcebook contains information and activities on heart disease and stroke and on the major risk factors for these diseases in adults. It also contains information on risk factors that begin in childhood. Additionally, it addresses people’s adherence to treatment and their communication with health care providers. Because the sourcebook contains some technical information, it is recommended for CHWs who already have some experience in their profession.
http://www.neefusa.org/health/asthma/asthmaguidelines.htm
These guidelines are aimed at integrating environmental management of asthma into pediatric health care. Offers clinical competencies in environmental health relevant to pediatric asthma and outlines the environmental interventions to communicate to patients.
Continuing education course developed by the Occupational Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, California Department of Public Health. Can view it for information or can register for credits.
MMWR August 7, 2009 / 58(RR09);1-11
The Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) Clinicians’ Network and Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN) serve as National Partners to the HRSA Health Disparities Collaboratives. One of the critical roles for both organizations is helping health centers identify their migrant and homeless patients. Both organizations share a commitment to the principal that mobility should not be a barrier for health care access or continuity of care. What follows is a set of succinct and helpful suggestions for how to better identify homeless and migrant patients in your practice.
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- IdentifingMigrantAndHomelessPatients.pdf (30.13 KB)
Welcome to Immu-News, the Immunization Initiatives listserv, a monthly resource for the community of participants in this project. For now, this is post-only listserv (in other words, you will get only one e-mail per month in your mailbox, instead of floods of daily discussions) but we hope to evolve into a more interactive form, something that will truly be of service to you as each of you searches for ways to improve your ability to record and access immunization data, to increase immunizations provided to your clients, and thus to improve the health of your community.
Our topic for this month is introduced by Dr. Jennie McLaurin, MCN’s Migrant Health Specialist and the Project Director for the Immunization Initiative. We include examples and a source for patient-held immunization records, and two articles on the topic. Please feel free to send responses, comments, thoughts, and ideas to the listserv administrator at kath@healthletter.com. If you send comments, we will follow up with your responses and ideas in the next listserv.
Immu-News is also pleased to feature Grounded in Practice, highlights from the real world clinics participating in Immunization Initiatives. We begin with San Benito Health Foundation in Hollister, CA. We invite you to send suggestions, stories, examples of things that have worked to improve immunization practices in your clinic. Send your ideas to kath@healthletter.com
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- immunews_july09.pdf (127.9 KB)
Our June topic is IIS or Immunzaion Registries. Between August and October of 2008, immunization initiative staff at MCN conducted structured interviews with all State Immunization Coordinators or their designated contact persons in an effort to identify state programs that address the immunization needs. In response to the question “does your state have an electronic immunization registry?” we found that 42 states have registries, six states are in the process of implementing them, and two states do not have registries. Out of 42 states with registries, 37 are in both public and private settings and 31 are “birth to death” registries, including both children and adults. To view report, go to: http://www.migrantclinician.org/toolsource/resource/interviews-state-programs-addressing-immunization-needs.html
We offer three articles that discuss the progress of using immunization registries to improve recording and access of immunization data. Click on the links below to access the full articles.
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- immunews_June09.pdf (81.33 KB)
Our May topic is “What Do Migrants from Mexico, Central and South America Think About Immunization?” MCN has conducted several focus groups in recent years on this topic, and we share with you, in two papers, what we learned in these focus groups.
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- immunews_may09.doc (79 KB)
An expert panel review of the scientific literature on lead and health - Environmental Health Perspective, March 2007
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- MedicalManagement_AdultLeadExposure.pdf (519.54 KB)
A lead fact sheet from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Variations in BCG vaccination practices impact the interpretation of TB diagnostics, such as the widely used Tuberculin Skin Test (TST). The World Atlas of BCG Policies and Practices will help clinicians in your country and around the world make better diagnostic decisions concerning TB infection.
The Immunization Initiative at MCN promotes improving childhood, adolescent, and adult immunization coverage levels among migrant and other mobile underserved populations. During the course of the initiative, anecdotal and documented evidence of an increase in the Hispanic indigenous population in United States and outside California surfaced from various sources. A separate initiative emerged, to design and develop a piece of educational material specifically for this population. This article, published in Streamline (March-April, 2009) discusses this initiative.
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- ImmunizationArticle.pdf (110.13 KB)
EPA has revoked regulations that permitted small residues of the pesticide carbofuran in food.
The Toolkit is a combination of easy-to-use reference guides for health providers and user friendly health education materials on preventing exposures to toxic chemicals and other substances that affect infant and child health.
This website offers some free online lessons which teach basic Spanish concepts. More detailed and advanced lessons can be purchased on CDs from the website.
The goal of this project is to create awareness about less common languages. This website offers a database of less commonly taught language classes, instructional materials, and other resources for teaching these languages. There are some resources for Zapoteco, Nahuatl, and Mayan indigenous languages.
The town of Greenfield, CA has a high population of indigenous immigrants from Oaxaca, Mexico, many of whom speak little Spanish and/or English. This website is a compilation of work done by students from the UC,Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and reports on what the town of Greenfield is doing to improve communications and relations with these indigenous peoples
FIOB has a good presentation that they use to teach the general community about indigenous cultures. This PowerPoint could be used to teach staff about indigenous languages.
M E J Personal Business Services, Inc. is an interpreting, translation, and financial service based in New York City. They provide Foreign Language Interpreting, Telephone interpreting, video remote Interpreting, and Financial and Translation Services. Their website specifies that they provide document translations in Mixteco.
General information or a free quote: 866-557-5336