For Immediate Release
Cheyenne, Wyoming
December 29, 2006

Wyoming Medicaid Program Urging Flu Shots for Pregnant Mothers, Chronically Ill

Healthy Together! Health Management Program Promoting Community Clinics

The Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) EqualityCare Program and APS Healthcare are urging those individuals with chronic illnesses—such as diabetes, asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder and heart disease—to get vaccinated against the flu.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), up to 20 percent of the population gets the flu each year; more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from its complications, and; about 36,000 people die from the illness. Risk of developing serious complications, such as pneumonia, increases for individuals will chronic illness.  Yet, only a fraction of those high-risk patients get their flu shot. The CDC estimates that only one-third of all asthmatic adults and one-fifth of asthmatic adults younger than 50 years of age receive the flu vaccine annually.

“Getting vaccinated, whether you are a child or an adult, is an important life-protecting effort,” explains Dr. Brent Sherard, WDH director and state health officer. “Yet the case for those individuals who have respiratory conditions, heart disease or diabetes is even stronger as their health can be severely compromised for weeks or months because of the flu.”

Those who should be vaccinated against the flu include:

• People 65 years and older;
• People who live in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities that house those with long-term illnesses;
• Adults and children 6 months and older with chronic heart or lung conditions, including asthma;
• Adults and children 6 months and older who needed regular medical care or were in a hospital during the previous year because of a metabolic disease (like diabetes), chronic kidney disease, or weakened immune system.
• Children 6 months to 18 years of age who are on long-term aspirin therapy. (Children given aspirin while they have influenza are at risk of Reye syndrome.);
• Women who will be pregnant during the influenza season;
• All children 6 to 23 months of age;
• People with any condition that can compromise respiratory function or the handling of respiratory secretions (that is, a condition that makes it hard to breathe or swallow, such as brain injury or disease, spinal cord injuries, seizure disorders, or other nerve or muscle disorders.)

Additionally, the CDC suggests that anyone over two years of age who has a chronic illness, such as heart disease; lung disease; sickle cell disease; diabetes; alcoholism; cirrhosis of the liver; or leaks of cerebrospinal fluid should receive a pneumococcal vaccine.
The Healthy Together! Health Management Program—which offers education and support to Wyoming EqualityCare (Medicaid) clients—is making sure that those clients with chronic illness are well informed about needing to receive their flu and pneumococcal vaccinations. Healthy Together! Health Coaches and Case Managers, who call clients regularly to help coordinate their care and provide education about their illness, are reinforcing the CDC’s guidelines with their clients and are mailing out CDC educational material to families.

APS Healthcare staff has been working hand-in-hand with the WDH Immunization Program to emphasize the importance of vaccinations, including distributing flu campaign material to physician offices and publicizing flu clinics around the state. Recently, Healthy Together!  staff has distributed more than 8,000 postcards to chronically ill EqualityCare patients reminding them of vaccinations and encouraging them to call APS’ toll-free number to get information on the nearest clinic in their county.  Visit http://wdh.state.wy.us/immunization/index.asp for more information.

Healthy Together! is offered by the Wyoming Department of Health to all Wyoming EqualityCare clients.  The program provides clients with one-on-one support from a nurse Health Coach, educational materials to encourage the self-management of their health and assistance in coordinating their care among multiple providers at no cost. Healthy Together! also provides EqualityCare clients with information on weight loss, smoking cessation and how to adopt healthy lifestyles. Healthy Together! was named the Best Government Disease Management Program by the Disease Management Association of America in 2005.