Rapid City, SD – Indian tribes and health organizations respond to concern about low measles vaccination rates and the difficulty of patients to get care as an outbreak of the disease spread throughout the country.
They organize mobile vaccine clinics, conduct campaigns on social media, ensure that care providers are vaccinated, contact the parents of non -vaccinated children and organize online training sessions.
The push to ensure that indigenous American communities are protected against the virus when the US has experienced the worst outbreak of measles since 1992. The South Dakota Health Department announced at the beginning of June that the first case in the state was an adult from the Rapid City area.
Cassandra Palmier and her son, Makaito Cuny, have benefited from this reach. Palmier took the opportunity to get her 5-year-old vaccinated after he heard that a mobile clinic would make a stop near her house in a predominantly Indian neighborhood in Rapid City.
She planned to get Makaito his second and last dose of the measles vaccine. But car problems made it difficult to come to the doctor.
“I was certainly worried about the epidemic and measles,” said Palmier, a member of the Oglala Sioux -Stam. “I wanted to do my share.”
Meghan O’Connell is the Chief Public Health Officer at the Great Plains Tribal Leaders’ Health Board, who organized the mobile clinic. She said that data on vaccination rates of Indians are imperfect, but suggests that a smaller percentage of measles shots has received than the total American population.
O’Connell said that lower vaccination percentages can result from challenges when access to shots and other health care. Indians in the countries of reservations can be out of a clinic for an hour or more. Or, just like Palmier, they may not have reliable transport.
Another reason, O’Connell said, is that some Indians are distrust of Indian health care, which is chronically under -financed and understaffed. If the federal agency runs the only nearby health care facility, patients can postpone or skip care, she said.
The reflection of a national trend, vaccine skepticism and distrust of the entire health care system grow in Indian communities, O’Connell added.
During the stop of the mobile clinic in his Rapid City neighborhood, Makaito walked into the bus and jumped into an exam chair.
“I’m not going to be afraid,” he announced. Makaito sat still when a nurse gave him the shot and placed a bandage on his arm. “I did it!” He said while he smiled at his mother.
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