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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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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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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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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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EPA has revoked regulations that permitted small residues of the pesticide carbofuran in food.

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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.

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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

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. 

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A training guide for Promotor(a) programs from Migrant Health Promotion.
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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.

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In May 2005, near its beginning, the HepTalk Project presented a position paper, "Hepatitis Screening, Immunization and Testing for Mobile Populations and Immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean" It has been updated with new immunization guidelines. This publication clarifies standard hepatitis immunization and testing recommendations for these populations.

HepQuick, also newly updated, incorporates specifics for mobile clients and recent immigrants from the position paper.

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This site is presented as a free medical Spanish immersion, with vocabulary including greetings, history, examination, and everyday speech, all with translation and audio. It is designed to be helpful for a variety of medical personnel. In addition to introducing Spanish medical terms, this site will hopefully improve fluency and even cultural competency.

Each dialogue consists of a few statements from the patient, the patient's family, and healthcare providers. Click to hear my voice and pronunciation. Then, repeat aloud everything you hear. When listening to Spanish medical phrases, feel free to use the pause button, and, of course, replay the recordings when needed.

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A production from American Radio Works that focuses on the impact of Latino immigration in America. It's sinking in among Americans that the nation's largest wave of immigration did not happen a century ago. It's happening now. About 35 million of us were born in other countries. That's one in eight residents of the United States. Immigrants come from all over the globe, but Latino immigration is remaking the country. And not just on the coasts and in the Southwest.
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To maintain a workplace free of violence.

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Sample pediatric immuniation protocol.
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Sample adult immunization protocol.
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Sample protocol for anemia that including testing and development of a treatment plan. The file also includes the current guidelines for deficient anemia levels.
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Sample protocol for ear irrigation.
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Sample clinical protocol for the assessement and treatment of Established Essential Hypertension.
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Sample clinical protocol for oral contraceptives.
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Sample procedure for abnormal PAP Smear follow-up.
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Guidelines for all PAP test results adapted from the recommendations issued from Brigham and Women's Hospital.
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A very comprehensive Hep C testing and counseling policy developed by the State Health Department in South Carolina. The guidelines also include an attachment that outlines HCV-specific information and prevention messages for health care providers.
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A checklist and decision tree to help clinics determine how and when to adopt specific clinical practice guidelines.
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A 54-page telephone traige protocol for basic pediatric conditions. If you have any questions about specific protocols, check the American Academy of Pediatrics website for their clinical Practice Guidelines at the following address. http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/practice_guidelines/index.dtl
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Upper gastrointestinal tract acid related disorders treatment protocol decision tree.
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Includes an article about the screening of people from countries where Hep B is endemic. The second part offers resources for clients from Central America who speak languages other than Spanish, such as the indigenous Mixteco. Though the study was completed in Eastern North Carolina, the resource list presented is national in scope and very broad.

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An opportunity to join live webcast on "Innovative HIV/STI Prevention Approaches."

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California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. (CRLA) has been a leading advocate for the rights of farmworkers and other low wage workers in California since 1966. CRLA has over twenty field offices in rural areas of California. We have five priority areas: housing, employment, education, family security (including public benefits), and civil rights. CRLA devotes a significant percentage of its resources to the employment and housing needs of California's rural poor, primarily farmworkers and their families.
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In honor of National Adult Immunization Week, September 24-28, we call your attention to an excellent source for patient education materials in many different languages, some of which we have featured here before. The IAC or Immunization Action Coalition is another one of our CDC partners in the Viral Hepatitis Education and Training program. They offer many different kinds of patient education materials about Hepatitis A and B vaccines. They’re easy to access and easy to download as pdf files, so they can be printed and distributed at your clinic, and they are available in Spanish. We have chosen a few of the resources most relevant to adult immunization and Hepatitis, but be sure to check all of their excellent resources.

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