Swine flu vaccinations are set to begin in October, and public health officials are mobilizing to ensure that the nation's roughly 12 million illegal immigrants are vaccinated to protect themselves and the public.
Unlike the debate over health care for illegal immigrants, there is little dispute they should be included in the nation's voluntary vaccination program.
"We believe it's important that all people be vaccinated regardless of immigration status," says Jon Feere, legal policy analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies, which opposes taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants and wants to reduce immigration.
Leaving 10 million to 12 million immigrants unvaccinated against the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, would increase the risk to everyone and make it much harder to control a pandemic, says Kevin Fiscella, associate professor at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York. "We're all in this together," he says.
The swine flu virus could hit children, teens and young adults especially hard -- a vulnerability compounded by the fact that the immigrant population tends to be younger overall than the general population.
Experts say state and local governments will have to overcome barriers to persuade illegal immigrants to trust public health departments enough to come forward and be vaccinated.
"For an undocumented immigrant who lives in daily fear of being deported, contact with any quasi-governmental agency, even a public health department, induces anxiety," Fiscella says.
Federal health officials are trying to quell those fears.
"Whether you're legal or illegal, the flu virus doesn't discriminate, and neither do we," says Arleen Porcell-Pharr of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The same recommendations to states regarding who should be vaccinated first (such as pregnant women and health care workers) would apply to immigrants, too, she says.
To get that message out, Porcell-Pharr says, the CDC is working with Hispanic media and community and religious groups that provide aid to immigrants.
Although some children of illegal immigrants may get vaccinated at school, many will not, health officials say.
"In many cases, the children are going to have to rely on parents to take them somewhere to be vaccinated," says Daniel Blumenthal, associate dean for community health at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. Most families can't afford the $20 to $30 fee that drugstores typically charge, Blumenthal says.
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