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| Media Advisory |
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For Immediate Release
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 |
Contact: AoA Press Office
(202) 357-3507 |
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U.S. Administration on Aging to Participate in DC Hispanic Flu Shot Clinic |
| HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Aging Edwin L. Walker will participate in a flu shot clinic for older Hispanics sponsored by the Educational Organization for United Latin Americans (EOFULA) on Thursday, October 30, 2008 in Washington, D.C.
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| WHO: |
Edwin L. Walker
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Programs
U.S. Administration on Aging, HHS |
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| WHEN: |
Thursday, October 30, 2008
1:00 p.m. EDT |
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| WHERE: |
EOFULA Senior Center
1842 Calvert Street, NW
Washington, D.C. |
Background:
Seniors are among groups hardest hit by flu. Each year in the U.S., an average of 36,000 people die, and more than 200,000 are hospitalized from serious flu complications. Ninety percent of flu deaths and more than half of hospitalizations occur in people 65 years and older. Adults with diabetes who develop the flu are three times more likely to die, and most are age 65 and older. Only about 52 percent of Hispanics 65 and over receive the flu shots and only about 32 percent are vaccinated against pneumococcal infections, compared to 62 percent of older white persons who receive the vaccinations. D.C. Hispanic elders comprise 3 percent of the city’s senior population, and 92 percent live or are below the poverty level.
Deputy Assistant Secretary Walker will visit with seniors at EOFULA and discuss the actions seniors and their families can take to protect themselves from the flu this year. Medicare covers the cost of a flu shot as well as a pneumococcal vaccine.
EOFULA was founded in 1969 to assist the local Hispanic community to overcome cultural, economic, social and language barriers. The Spanish Senior Center was established in 1974 and provides a variety of home and community-based services for Hispanic seniors in the community, as well as Spanish and English translation. EOFULA is part of the DC Office on Aging Senior Center Network, a component of the Administration on Aging’s (AoA) national aging services network. For more information about EOFULA, visit www.eofula.org For more information about AoA, visit www.aoa.gov |
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