Rochester Leads Nation in Reducing Inequality in Vaccination Rates

An innovative community partnership run by the University of Rochester Medical Center and the Monroe County Department of Public Health has essentially erased racial disparities in key immunization rates in Rochester.

In 2002, Rochester was chosen by the Centers for Disease Control as one of five national sites for the Racial and Ethnic Adult Disparities in Immunization Initiative (READII), a multiyear pilot project aimed at developing strategies that could be used by other regions to successfully reduce disparity rates for flu and pneumonia vaccines. Rochester READII combined a series of outreach efforts based out of neighborhood health clinics and community organizations to target African-American seniors.

The program's coordinated approach has had a significant impact. In 2000, influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates for African-American seniors were approximately 40 percent. Five years later, African-American vaccination rates in Rochester were 70 percent and higher- comparable to those of white seniors-and are now among the highest in the nation.