The South Dakota Department of Health plans to send its fledgling mobile clinics to underserved and undervaccinated areas of the state in response to the nationwide measles outbreak making its way to the state.
Last year, South Dakotareportedits first measles case in nine years.
The state Department of Health recently reported thestates first casethis year in Meade County in western South Dakota. Last week, on Friday, a second case was reported in Rapid City. People who visited Sams Club in that city on June 1, or Dakota Premier Medical Center the following daywere urged by the department to monitor themselves for symptoms for 21 days.
Measles is a highly contagious viral disease that spreads through the air. Those who lack immunity from vaccination or past infection are highly likely to catch it from an infected person.
Assurrounding states reportmore cases, Health Department Secretary Melissa Magstadt said the states Wellness on Wheels clinics can help encourage vaccinations.
The fleet boasts five vehicles equipped to provide immunizations,test for sexually transmitted diseasessuch as syphilis, as well as provide screenings, prenatal care and other support.The effort fills in gaps to public health care access across the state, especially in rural and tribal communities, Magstadt said.
Its about how we can actively use these tools to reach underserved populations, Magstadt said. Its not something I would have thought about looking to leverage for something like measles vaccinations before.
The department hasnt decided where to send their fleet. Counties with the fewest kindergarteners vaccinated per capita for measles, mumps and rubella include Faulk, Jones and Hutchinson,state data shows.
South Dakota counties that share tribal land and rural counties in south-central areas of the state rank the worst for clinical care use and access in the state, according to the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institutes2023 report.
Federal COVID relief funds paid for Wellness on Wheels.
Because of the pandemic, public health infrastructure was found to be wanting, Magstadt said. That infrastructure missed critical pieces that hadnt been invested in, she said, such ashealth care access in rural areas.More than a hundred rural hospitals in the U.S. have closed in the last decade.
The program, launched in April of last year, cost about $800,000 in federal funding. The states public health COVID funding was also used to support acommunity health workerprogram, updateemergency medical service equipmentandtelemedicine access, analyze thestate of emergency medical servicesin South Dakota, and build a Public Health Lab and department training center.
Magstadt said staff working with the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program requested the mobile units. WIC is a federal-state program that provides healthy food, nutrition education and health care referrals to low-income women and their young children.
So far, Wellness on Wheels staff have mainly driven to events. Magstadt said the department has focused on increasing awareness of the program and building trust in communities and among tribal leaders. She plans to have staff drive the buses to rural communities more regularly to increase exposure and encourage use.
Being consistently at a facility or place every other week will help people find it, Magstadt said. We talk about the importance of STI testing, for example, but if you dont know where to get tested then thats another barrier.
Magstadt plans to have the department park one of the vehicles at a homeless shelter in Rapid City this summer as well to encourage underserved urban communities to seek services.
We like people to be connected to primary care services, but there are unique situations where its harder to get to health care facilities, Magstadt said.
She compared the mobile clinics as a return to home visits by doctors. That practice largely ceased in the 1960sdue to cost efficiencies.
Its a part of this menu of health care access and options no longer requiring people to come to a clinic or health care system, Magstadt said, but health care being taken to patients and families who need it.
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