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Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 22:43:45 EDT
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Subject: [AfricaMatters] Report Shows Minorities Not Getting Flu Shots
Report Shows Minorities Not Getting Flu Shots
RTR
Oct 25 2000 1:33PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Minorities including African-Americans and Hispanics
are much less likely than white Americans to get flu vaccines and shots to
prevent pneumonia, doctors said on Wednesday.
The National Medical Association (NMA), which represents doctors from ethnic
minorities, said it has started an education campaign to make sure healthcare
workers make an extra effort to urge minorities to get vaccinated.
"The risk for contracting pneumococcal disease and influenza among
African-Americans and Hispanics older than 65 years of age, and especially
those who have chronic medical conditions, is an ever-present threat," the
NMA''s Dr. Bonnie Word, also a practicing pediatrician, told a news
conference.
"African-Americans, in particular appear to be at increased risk for
acquiring pneumococcal disease and the reasons for this are not fully
understood." Yet they are much less likely to be offered vaccines, Word said.
She cited a 1997 study that showed 53 percent of Hispanics and 45 percent of
blacks over the age of 65 got flu shots, as compared to 63 percent of older
whites. Only 22 percent of blacks and 23 percent of Hispanics get shots for
pneumococcal disease, as compared to 36 percent of whites.
Pneumococcal disease, which includes pneumonia and meningitis, can be a
deadly side-effect of the flu.
She said studies had shown that even when income, education and access to
doctors is factored in, blacks and Hispanics are still much less likely than
whites to be offered a flu or pneumoccocal disease vaccination.
She said the NMA had launched a campaign aimed at doctors, nurses and other
healthcare workers to urge them to make sure minorities are offered the
vaccine.
Word said patients wrongly feared the flu vaccine would not work or would
have side-effects -- including actually giving them the flu. "Sometimes you
get seniors who don''t identify themselves as seniors," she added. "I have
had some people tell me they are religious and God will take care of them."
FLU SHOTS WRONGLY LINKED TO FLU
Studies show that people are just as likely to report flu-like symptoms
whether they have had a dummy flu shot or a real one. And while people are
used to being forced to immunize their children before they can enroll them
in school, they forget that adults need some shots, too.
"The concept of adult immunization is nonexistent," Word said.
Influenza kills, on average, 20,000 people a year in the United States and
puts 100,000 in the hospital. Pneumococcal disease, also easily prevented by
a vaccine, kills more than 10,000 Americans every year.
High-risk groups include anyone over the age of 65; anyone with immune
suppression associated with cancer treatment, HIV infection or some other
cause; women who will be past the first trimester of their pregnancies during
flu season; and healthcare workers and others with regular contact with
people in the high-risk groups.
"Together, influenza and pneumococcal disease are the most common causes of
death in Americans from diseases that can be prevented by vaccines," U.S.
Surgeon-General Dr. David Satcher said.
"We must reach out to our older Hispanic and African-Americans to raise
awareness about the need for these vaccinations and help close the racial
health care gap."
Copyright © 2000 Reuters Limited
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