Booster Booster Campaign a Victory for City of Pittsburgh

In a triumph for children, public health, education, and for that matter, the entire region, the Greater Pittsburgh Measles Immunization Task Force has helped bring city school children into 99 percent compliance with the measles booster shot mandated by the Commonwealth. And through this partnership, thousands of students in the 42 school districts surrounding Pittsburgh have

also achieved compliance. By any measure, this is an impressive accomplishment. Even more remarkable, with no red tape, bureaucratic gridlock, or political roadblocks, this victory was achieved in one month. We believe this ushers in a new era of regional partnerships representing what can be achieved when we focus on children and the common good.

The dizzying speed with which the coalition formed, expanded, planned, acted, and succeeded might mask the daunting and enormous task undertaken on March 29, when news organizations gathered at the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh and learned of the Booster Booster campaign. The task force leaders knew, however, that 11,287 Pittsburgh school children faced mandatory suspension on May 1st if certifications of their booster shots against measles, mumps, and rubella were not filed with their schools. And we also knew that the jeopardy fell primarily on the poor, black, and disadvantaged. Earlier use of standard methods — letters sent to homes by pupils and through the mail — proved unsuccessful (65,000 appeal letters produced only 200 compliance certifications). So the crisis was real and the models for success few. Unfazed — and, some would say, naïve — the Greater Pittsburgh Measles Immunization Task Force moved forward with optimism.

We, as cochairs, immediately tapped Stephen Thomas, the Phillip Hallen Professor of Community Health and Social Justice and director of the Center for Minority Health at Pitt, to chair the Task Force Executive Committee. But by the time he assumed that role, he had already recruited a distinguished array of partners across a range of institutions in our community. Organizations representing government included the Allegheny County Health Department, the Pittsburgh Mayor’s Office, and the Office of the Allegheny County Executive. County Health Director Bruce Dixon quickly dismantled administrative barriers and provided the serums.

Health care providers and health insurers included Children’s Hospital, Gateway Medical Society, Highmark, and UPMC. These partners, together with Pittsburgh Public School nurses, were the volunteers responsible for actual delivery of the vaccinations. They set up clinics, looked after mobile units, provided administrative details, and — what all of this was about — administered inoculations.

Early in our work, it became evident that many children for whom we had no booster documentation already had been immunized. Thus, our task was as much to get families to file up-to-date records with their schools as it was to immunize those in need of the booster. So the Booster Booster campaign, as we called our initiative, literally took to the streets. And the partners that mobilized the large number of volunteers for the on-the-ground campaign were the African American Baptist churches, the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, the Community Empowerment Association, the United Way, the Urban League, and the Young Men’s Christian Association. Their efforts produced immunization clearances for more than 900 children through clinics held on the North Side and in the Hill District, and in McKeesport and East Liberty.

We make special note of East Liberty, because it was our first clinic, as well as our most successful community-based clinic, and it brought 525 children into compliance in the parking lot of Giant Eagle…on Easter weekend! And in the spirit of that season, Giant Eagle was a fine corporate partner, providing space for our vans, refreshments, and a caring staff on one of its busiest weekends.

The “spoonful of sugar” to help “the medicine go down” was supplied beautifully in East Liberty by WAMO’s street team, which gave out free music CDs and, live on the air, exhorted listening hip-hoppers to come down, get the booster, and join the fun. Men’s Panther basketball coach Ben Howland was present to assure the kids that the booster is “the best shot a kid can take.”

News organizations were at their finest in covering the campaign, and especially in providing information about the clinics and reminders to families that time was running out to get their children immunized. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, The New Pittsburgh Courier, KDKA, WTAE, WPXI, KQV, FOX 53, WDUQ, and WAMO provided extensive coverage.

The partners in the foundation community were represented well by the Maurice Falk Medical Fund and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.

Though we shared leadership responsibilities as cochairs, our efforts were supported at Pitt by the Office of Public Affairs, the School of Social Work, the Graduate School of Public Health, the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences, and the aforementioned Center for Minority Health; and at the school board by the Office of Student Services, the Public Relations Office, and by every school in the Pittsburgh School District.

On May 14, the Greater Pittsburgh Measles Immunization Task Force held its final business meeting for this phase of its work, and it received the gratifying news: Some 10,862 children in the Pittsburgh Public Schools had received the booster or updated their medical records during the month-long period of the campaign. That means that more than 96 percent of the 11,287 Pittsburgh school children not previously protected are now protected. Including the students already in compliance before the task force’s efforts began, total Pittsburgh Public Schools compliance stands at 99 percent. Pitt Family Medicine Professor Rick Zimmerman assured the group that 95 percent immunization coverage ensures safety from an outbreak of measles, mumps, or rubella. But the work will not conclude until the last child is in compliance with the state mandate. The remaining 425 are being individually case-managed.

Not since the Salk polio vaccination movement, begun at Pitt nearly half a century ago, has the Pittsburgh community mounted such a large and concentrated effort around kids and their health. The Greater Pittsburgh Measles Immunization Task Force is grateful to all of the organizations, friends, families, and children for this success. And the task force takes comfort in the knowledge that 10,826 out of 11,287 at-risk children in the Pittsburgh Public School District were protected because of the Booster Booster campaign. The lessons we have learned inspire us to continue our partnership and affirm our commitment to keeping children in school, learning, and healthy.

— Mark A. Nordenberg, chancellor, and John W. Thompson, superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools, cochairs of the Greater Pittsburgh Measles Immunization Task Force