Today, Commissioner Auerbach was joined by Governor Deval Patrick, HHS Assistant Secretary Howard Koh, MD, and Health and Human Services Secretary JudyAnn Bigby, MD, at the State House to once again stress the importance of getting vaccinated against H1N1. To drive this message home, DPH Medical Director Dr. Lauren Smith was on hand to personally vaccinate Governor Patrick, Secretary Koh and Secretary Bigby.
In addition, Secretary Bigby discussed some initial findings released by DPH which found a disturbing trend that people of color -- particularly Blacks, Hispanics and Asians -- get the H1N1 flu more often than their White counterparts, and that they have higher rates of hospitalization and death.
To address this issue DPH is concentrating our efforts on reaching out to these populations by dedicating over $1 million in funding that will enable community-based organizations to perform outreach to the populations especially hard hit by the flu, and expanding the Flu Facts media campaign to speak directly to African American and Latino audiences.
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