Hello, I'm John Iskander and welcome to Beyond the Data.
I'm here today with Marion McDonald.
Marion,at today's Public Health Grand Rounds session we heard
about the successful efforts using immunization
to combat health disparities.
What are some of the lessons that we can learn from that
about infectious disease control more broadly?
Well I think first of all we need to acknowledge
that they are extraordinary successes that we've had
in reducing and even essentially eliminating infectious disease
disparities in vaccine preventable diseases.
I think one thing that it shows is that we can
in fact tackle the health disparity,
infectious disease disparity, when there's a will and a way,
and the way of course was the Vaccines for Children program.
It also shows us that we need to have the programs and policies
in place that will help address whatever infectious disease
disparity issue we're looking at, and, also we really need
to be tracking and monitoring and measuring our progress
and I think this, today's example, was one where all,
all of the above took place.
So, yeah, very important points.
I think much of our audience is aware that we're fortunate now
to have high levels of vaccine coverage
and historically low levels
of vaccine preventable diseases generally in the United States.
But, but, what is the situation globally with immunization
and vaccine preventable diseases?
How is the world doing?
Great question.Well, the good news is
that there has been progress,
for example in measles mortality;
we've seen some reduction there.
But, there's still are a lot of inequities, disparities,
within countries and between countries.
And even with some of the new, newer mechanisms
to finance there are countries that are still struggling
with the barrier, the financial barriers to immunization.
So, we got a way to go, still.
So, thinking about a physician, another kind, you know, a nurse,
a public health provider working with a minority
or an underserved population, what are the practical things
that they can do in their clinic to assure
that all people have equal access to vaccines?
Well, there are a lot of things that can be barriers to access,
but I think if, if the front line people,
the clinical providers, public health people have knowledge
of what are the disease, you know, disease outbreaks,
disease patterns, in the community,
know what are the risk factors with the populations
in their community and also what are some of the cultural
and linguistic requirements for effectively working
with those populations.
I think also looking at ways
that the immunization visit can be really sort of an in and out
and streamlined clinical encounter and kind of pare
down extra steps in that process.
I think that those things will definitely help.
Very excellent and practical guidance, Marian.
Please join us next month for Beyond the Data.