The Texas Medical Association (TMA) medical student chapter at the University of North Texas Health Science Center-Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (UNTHSC-TCOM) has received a $2,000 grant from TMA’s Be Wise — Immunize program. The grant is helping students provide flu vaccinations to uninsured residents in Fort Worth.
The student chapter gave more than 70 flu vaccinations to community members and participants in a UNTHSC geriatrics research study at Northside Community Health Center Nov. 3. Medical students will host another flu shot clinic Saturday with Mission Fort Worth, a volunteer-run health clinic that serves low-income, uninsured patients in a predominantly Hispanic area of the city.
Only 48 percent of Hispanics in Tarrant County were vaccinated against the flu in 2010—well below the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2020 goal of 90 percent for flu vaccinations.
