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| Immunization Action Coalition Wins Prestigious Award |
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| Partners in Public Health Award from Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention |
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| Deborah L. Wexler, MD, shown
holding the award, is accompanied by (left to right) Margaret Vaillancourt and
Lynn Bahta of the Coalition, and CDC's Hepatitis Branch staff members, Craig
Shapiro, MD, medical epidemiologist; Linda Moyer, MSN, nurse epidemiologist; and
Harold Margolis, MD, Hepatitis Branch chief. |
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| May 15, 1997 |
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| A once-obscure immunization newsletter that won a $750,000 federal grant in 1995
now has won a prestigious Partners in Public Health award from the federal
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. |
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"I wasn't really that impressed until I
found out who the other organizations are that got the award. We're in
incredible company," said Margaret Vaillancourt, a co-founder of the St.
Paul-based Immunization Action Coalition. |
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| The CDC award - only one of four presented
this year - was made "to recognize this coalition of health care
professionals and concerned citizens whose efforts were instrumental in
achieving high levels of routine infant hepatitis B immunization." |
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| Vaillancourt, Dr. Deborah Wexler, the
immunization group's other co-founder, and Lynn Bahta, a public health nurse
and the organization's health educator, will accept the award June 4 in
Atlanta. |
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| "We'll get a plaque and a handshake" from Dr.
David Satcher, the head of the CDC, Wexler said. |
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| Wexler, who was on the staff at the West Side
Community Clinic, got the idea for the newsletter in 1990 after a measles
outbreak killed three Hmong children in St. Paul. |
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| She has been assisted over the years by
Vaillancourt, a former journalist. Their first newsletters, which were sent
to about 40 people in the Twin Cities area, were simply minutes of meetings
held by the Hepatitis B Coalition. |
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| But the newsletter struck a chord with busy
doctors, nurses and other health care providers, who appreciated the short,
concise articles and the easy-to-follow charts. |
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| Fueled by its usefulness, the newsletter's
circulation gradually climbed to several hundred, then jumped to several
thousand and now is at a remarkable 173,000 copies per issue. |
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| "We just keep growing and growing and
growing," Wexler said. |
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| Besides the newsletter, the coalition has
become a national distributor for immunization videos, and, to handle the
increased workload, in June will double its office space in the Liberty
State Bank, 1573 Selby Ave. |
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| In recognition of the important service the
coalition provides, officials at the CDC increased the group's original
grant of $150,000 a year for five years to $175,000 annually and is likely
to boost it by another $75, 000 a year, Vaillancourt said. |
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| "They're remarkable," said Mike Christenson,
executive director of the Allina Foundation, which is one of the coalition's
many sponsors. |
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| "They produce the busiest and best newsletter
in the country on immunization - there's not much doubt about that,"
Christenson said. "This newsletter has created a tremendous, very
intelligent grass-roots movement unto itself." |
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| By staff writer Tom Majeski |
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| This page was reviewed on September 10, 2010 |
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