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
Looking for complete and dependable information in plain language about heart, lung, and blood diseases and sleep disorders in Spanish? Check out the NHLBI's Spanish-language topics on the Diseases and Conditions Index (DCI)
Photonovelas in English and Spanish. Produced by the North Carolina Farmworker Project.
- Heat_Illness_Novela_English.pdf (1.41 MB)
- Heat_Illness_Novela_Spanish.pdf (1.42 MB)
- fotonovela_directions.doc (77.5 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
- 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.
- 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.
- immunews_may09.doc (79 KB)
Spanish brochure to help workers prevent taking lead into their homes from the CA Dept. Public Health, Occupational Health Branch - The Occupational Lead Poisoning Prevention Program.
- Lead_TakeHome_CA_esp.pdf (478 KB)
Bilingual flyer from the CA Department of Public Health.
- PotteryFlyer_Eng_Esp_CA.pdf (827.21 KB)
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.
- ImmunizationArticle.pdf (110.13 KB)
EPA has revoked regulations that permitted small residues of the pesticide carbofuran in food.
A resource from SAGE in English and Spanish. A reminder to wash hands to prevent sickness from spreading. Prints legal size.
A resource from SAGE in English and Spanish. A reminder to cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze to prevent sickness from spreading. Prints legal size.
Sage Words developed a pandemic flu brochure specifically for a small clinic on the Navajo Reservation. Though the illustrations are targeted towards this population, it is available in English and Spanish, and the information is general. It includes preventative measures, and is for low-literacy users. It’s designed to be easily photocopied or printed from computers and is available to anyone who might find it appropriate to use.
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.
The CA Department of Pesticide Regulation provides videos in Mixteco about pesticide safety. Contact Charlene Martens to get copies or more information: (916) 445-4261 cmartens@cdpr.ca.gov
This digital archive features a number of recordings and texts in the indigenous languages of Latin America. Materials are available in Mixteco, Mam, Nahuatl, Otomi, Triqui, Zapoteco, and many other indigenous languages. These materials give information about the cultures of these indigenous groups. Original works of literature in indigenous languages are also published on this site. AILLA works to preserve written forms of these languages, but it also collects grammars, dictionaries, ethnographies, and research notes that can be used as teaching materials. Most of the archive is free and available to the public.
This organization, based in Woodburn, Oregon, has 3 community outreach workers and a receptionist in their office who speaks indigenous languages (Mixteco Alto and Mixteco Bajo).
They utilize the following strategies to communicate with clients who speak indigenous languages:
1 Audio Materials: The Oregon Law Center puts important information and scenarios on tapes and CDs in indigenous languages for their clients
2 Radio: The employees at the Oregon Law Center who speak indigenous languages create radio ads for local Spanish language stations in indigenous languages. They also participate on 2-3 radio shows per month.
3 Presentations: They also do around 5 community presentations per month for workers (some of which are done in indigenous languages).
4 Identifying and training interpreters for indigenous languages: They collaborate with the Oregon Judicial Department to provide training to become court interpreters for people who speak both an indigenous language and Spanish.
Contact Information:
230 W. Hayes St.
Woodburn, OR 97071
Julie Samples juliesamps@yahoo.com
(503) 981-0336
1-800-973-9003
Just as adults spend most of their days at work, children spend many of their waking hours at school. So it’s not surprising that, along with their homes and communities, schools are where kids learn good habits, like being physically active every day, or potentially bad habits, like not making healthy decisions at lunch. Therefore, as we seek to help nurture the healthiest nation in one generation, schools are a central part of the strategy.
Describes the adverse health effects of lead in workers with blood-lead levels of 5-10 ug/dL and recommend changing OSHA’s medical removal trigger of 60 ug/dL.
- Perspectives_Lead_Exposure_2.pdf (1.09 MB)
Founded by singer/songwriter Paul Simon and pediatrician/child advocate Irwin Redlener, MD in 1987, The Children's Health Fund (CHF) works nationally to develop health care programs for the nation's most medically underserved population - homeless and disadvantaged children. CHF brings medical care and essential services directly to underserved children in rural and urban communities via Mobile Medical clinics (doctor's offices on wheels) and fixed site clinics. Moreover, CHF has become a major national advocacy voice on behalf of all children, and has inspired special federal legislation designed to help create innovative Children's Health Projects throughout the United States. The Children's Health Fund's website contains a lot of useful information, which would undoubtedly benefit your audience.
Link to APHA's Get Ready Campaign website with comprehensive information regarding potential influenza pandemic including several useful full-color brochures/handouts and other free materials.
Use these free materials from APHA to help Americans prepare themselves, their families and their communities for all public health hazards they may face, including disasters, pandemic flu or other emerging infectious diseases. Share them with those you care about, or pass them out in your community!
Informative website about pandemic and avian flu topics.
Are You Ready? An In-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness (IS-22) is FEMA’s most comprehensive source on individual, family, and community preparedness.
Are You Ready? provides a step-by-step approach to disaster preparedness by walking the reader through how to get informed about local emergency plans, how to identify hazards that affect their local area, and how to develop and maintain an emergency communications plan and disaster supplies kit. Other topics covered include evacuation, emergency public shelters, animals in disaster, and information specific to people with disabilities.
Are You Ready? also provides in-depth information on specific hazards including what to do before, during, and after each hazard type.
An Overview of Drinking Water Quality and Water and Sanitation-Related Disease by James VanDerslice, Ph.D. and Amy K. Liebman, MPA. The information for this article comes from presentations Jim VanDerslice made at recent MCN environmental health intensivesand an outreach program that both authors developed and implemented along the US-Mexico Border.
Also in this issue: Newsflashes, TB Education and Training Network and TB-Educate Listserv, Pizcando Suenos/Harvesting Dreams: The Voices of Mexican American Women.For more Streamline articles visit http://www.migrantclinician.org/news/streamline.html
- 20020506_mcn_streamline.pdf (236.81 KB)
Welcome to the HepTalk Listserv. For July, we offer two articles about immunizing adolescents. Adolescents are often seen by many of you in your clinics for a variety of reasons, from prenatal care to sports physical exams, presenting a good opportunity to see if they have had their Hep B shots.
- july08_heptalk.pdf (42.49 KB)
- summit_brochure.pdf (224.54 KB)