Immigrants urged to get flu shots
Many avoid vaccine or aren’t accustomed to it
By JENALIA MORENO, HOUSTON CHRONICLE, Oct. 3, 2009
Fear of the flu has made Yolanda Cisneros such a germaphobe she has bleach stains on her blouse from cleaning her home so obsessively.
For the first time in her adult life, the Mexican immigrant who doesn't have a regular doctor or health insurance got the seasonal flu vaccination. If she can afford it, she plans to receive the H1N1 vaccine when it's available.
“With the whole situation, the contagion, I decided to get it,” said Cisneros, 59, after receiving flu and tetanus shots at a senior citizen immunization event at the Denver Harbor Multi-Service Center on Friday. “I have to take care of myself.”
Health officials are trying to encourage the at-risk population to get immunized against both the seasonal and swine flu. Persuading the Hispanic immigrant population to participate in the voluntary vaccination program poses a challenge because of a host of barriers including language, deportation fears, culture and cash.
Fewer than four in 10 Hispanic adults said they would get the seasonal flu shots, and 56 percent said they were not concerned about the flu, according to a September study conducted by Garcia Research and sponsored by Clorox Co.
Rumors that the vaccination will sicken people are circulating among Hispanics and keeping some from getting the shot.
“Latinos have a lot of misconceptions regarding the vaccine,” said Aliza Lifshitz, a Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles internist and editor of VidaySalud.com, a Spanish language health site. “Some people are saying, ‘Oh we're going to be guinea pigs.'”
Concerns of legal status
Illegal immigrants also fear authorities.
“I think there is some concern among undocumented immigrants that we're going to report their status to authorities. That's not our job,” said Donald Briscoe, medical director of Houston Community Health Centers, which operates the Denver Harbor Medical Clinic and Airline Children's Clinic.
Regardless of their legal status, health authorities want immigrants who comprise a significant percentage of Houston's population to get vaccinated to protect the public. Last year, the Harris County Public Health & Environmental Services' refugee program administered the flu shot to 800 adults and has 1,000 vaccinations available this year.
“We're trying to limit the spread,” said Porfirio Villarreal, spokesman for the Houston Department of Health and Human Services, which will administer 5,000 flu shots this season.
Some immigrants simply can't afford the shot, said Rosanne Popp, medical director for the Christus Southwest Community Health Center, which is holding a flu vaccination drive for children from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. next Saturday.
“Especially with the economy, $25 for a flu shot is a lot,” said Popp, whose center charges its patients $10 for the shot compared to $25 by many pharmacies.
Some Hispanics are simply not accustomed to getting vaccinated.
“A lot of people coming from abroad associate vaccinations with little kids,” said Joseph McCormick, regional dean of The University of Texas School of Public Health Brownsville.
Others uninsured
Part of the problem is that Hispanics often don't go to the doctor until they are sick because they are uninsured, he said.
Hispanics are most likely to be uninsured with 41.5 percent of Hispanic adults without insurance compared to 16 percent of the total U.S. adult population, according to a recent Gallup poll. Texas also has the highest uninsured population, with 27 percent of Texans without insurance, according to Gallup.
Mexican immigrant Maria Alejandro is uninsured and got her first adult immunization after her friends escorted her to the vaccination site. Alejandro, 47, doesn't seek medical treatment because she would rather not know if she's ill.
“I'm afraid to go to the doctor because he's going to discover I have a sickness, and I'll get depressed,” she said.
jenalia.moreno@chron.com
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