Prominent leaders push for expansion of bacterial meningitis vaccine Health disparities working group urges the CDC to ensure all families have equal access to immunizations

Prominent leaders push for expansion of bacterial meningitis vaccine Health disparities working group urges the CDC to ensure all families have equal access to immunizations

By Angela Sailor

ATLANTA, GA. — A working Group of prominent leaders is calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to expand the recommendations for the bacterial meningitis vaccine to include infants as young as six months old at its upcoming meeting.

Former Congressmen J.C. Watts, Jr., and Ron Dellums, along with National Medical Association President Michael A. LeNoir, M.D. are leading a newly formed Health Disparities Working Group. “We are excited about the strength of the working group and our first project which is focused on advocating for an expanded vaccinations recommendation that would help to ensure low-income and minority communities are not disadvantaged in access to quality medical care,” said Dr. LeNoir.

“We are concerned about the ‘vaccine gap’ in this country, which allows more affluent communities to receive important immunizations that are largely inacces-sible to low-income and minority commu-nities, and contributes to the growing health disparities,” Congressman Watts said. “We believe adding the bacterial meningitis vaccine to the recommended list for infants will help ensure that low-income and minority communities that rely on federal and state vaccination pro-grams will have access to this life-saving medication,” added Congressman Del-lums.

Current Working Group members include Millicent Gorham, Executive Director for the National Office of the National Black Nurses Association, Wade Henderson, President and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund; Dr. Gary Puckrein, president and CEO of the National Minority Quality Forum; Daraka Satcher, president of the Satcher Group; and Hilary Shelton, Executive Director Government Affairs for The NAACP.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is scheduled to meet on October 23, 2013 to consider recommending the bacterial meningitis vaccine for children as young as six months old. Adding the vaccine to the routine immunization schedule will ensure that it will be included in the federal Vaccines for Children program, which provides approximately 82 million vaccines to 40 million low-income children each year. The recommendation will also improve vaccine coverage among private insurers and devote resources to education about the disease.

“A failure by ACIP to recommend the bacterial meningitis vaccine for children will perpetuate the disproportionately high rates of amenable morbidity and mortality associated with this disease in underserved populations throughout the country. We urge ACIP to be decisive and proactive in protecting the health and futures of all of America’s children,” said Dr. Puckrein.

Bacterial meningitis, while rare, is a deadly disease that kills approximately 500 people each year. The first symptoms are often similar to a cold or flu, but in hours the bacteria can attack the body, leaving those who survive with lost limbs, learning disabilities and hearing loss. The African-American community is at greater risk for bacterial meningitis because many low-income black families face key risk factors, including over-crowding, underlying illnesses and tobacco use.

 

About The Working Group

One of the Working Group’s projects is to raise awareness about the growing disparity in health for low-income and minority families in the United States, which the National Institute of Health recently labeled as one of the nation’s greatest challenges. A recent CDC report found large racial, ethnic and income disparities in preventable hospitalizations, where blacks experience a rate more than double that of whites. Preventable incidents account for more than one million hospitalizations each year, at a cost of more than $6.7 billion annually.

The Working Group will work on a myriad of issues facing low-income and minority communities, including the so-called “vaccine gap.” The NIH has identified access to vaccines as a major factor in curbing health disparities. Studies have found that minorities are more likely to not receive immunizations because of limited access to preventative healthcare and lack of education on the importance of regular vaccinations.

Watts, Dellums and LeNoir will serve as co-chairs of the Working Group. During his time in Congress, Watts was a fierce advocate for health disparities.  Watts worked closely with Congresswoman Donna Christensen to pass a sense of Congress that April should be National Minority Health Month.  Dellums was a staunch supporter of programs to end infectious diseases during his more than four-decade career in public service. President Clinton appointed Dellums to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS in 1999. Dr. LeNoiris the current President of NMA and has been an active member for 30 years. LeNoir’s other leadership roles with NMA include speaker of the House of Delegates, trustee, and chair of Region VI and chair of the Pediatric, Community Medicine and Allergy sections.

 

 

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Carma Lynn Henry Westside Gazette Newspaper 545 N.W. 7th Terrace, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33311 Office: (954) 525-1489 Fax: (954) 525-1861

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