By Dr. Alfredo Vigil
Secretary, N.M. Department of Health
I have been working as the governor's health secretary for about two months now and am continuously impressed by the staff's dedication to provide a broad array of services and tackle challenging issues daily.
One of our challenging issues is ensuring our children receive the immunizations they need to protect them against deadly diseases. This is an important public health priority for New Mexico, and I am concerned that we're not continuing to make progress in our immunization rates.
It's time to reinvigorate efforts across the state with a special emphasis in areas of New Mexico that typically struggle with low immunization rates. We recently announced that we are taking vaccines on the road. We are going to 16 communities in every corner of the state.
In each community we are working with local nurses and community leaders to identify the best time and place to reach the most families. In some communities, we will park the Blue Cross Blue Shield Barbara Richardson Care Van in a Wal-Mart parking lot. In others, we'll make trips to a church, community center or a busy health clinic.
We want to challenge the notion that immunizations can only be given during a scheduled appointment in a doctor's office. In my experience as a doctor for the past 30 years, that tradition doesn't work well for young, busy families.
We should recognize the realities of raising children while juggling work and other obligations. We should do everything we can to make it easy for parents to get immunizations for their children in a safe, efficient manner.
If our tour is successful this year and we know more kids received their immunizations, we will look at providing that kind of care everywhere in the state. I'd like to see our staff bring vaccine to parents and children— wherever they are.
I realize this is a new concept, that we've gotten used to thinking of shots in terms of appointments. I understand how critical primary care is for children, but I'm convinced that requiring appointments for immunizations creates a slow assembly line for those who are sick and really need to see a doctor.
I hear that parents are reluctant to pause during a shopping day or an outing at the State Fair to get shots for their children. It's my experience, as a doctor, a parent and former CEO of El Centro Family Health, that children are momentarily unhappy after a needle stick and can bounce back quickly if they are distracted by something fun. Some children may experience soreness or mild fever, but that's usually several hours after receiving a vaccine.
We occasionally hear media reporting about parents who believe their child developed serious side effects from vaccine, even though there's no proof that there's a link to immunizations. In fact, immunizations' safety record is spotless after more than 60 years of shots for millions of children.
The potential reality of not protecting your children against diseases that are still circulating across the world is much scarier. Every year we investigate cases of whooping cough, and almost every year infants in New Mexico die from the preventable disease.
We will continue our work with the New Mexico Immunization Coalition to educate parents about the importance of immunizations. We will keep sending shot-team nurses to assess providers' practices and help them get their patients vaccinated. We will still provide immunizations for free in our 55 public health offices. And we will continue to consider what immunization barriers exist and find a way to eliminate them.
I challenge health care providers to consider what barriers might exist in your practice and how you could make it easier for families to protect their children. And I challenge parents to make immunizations a priority in their lives and seize any opportunity to make sure your children are up to date on the shots they need.
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