EL PASO, Texas – Children in underserved communities throughout the El Paso area will have access to the new TTUHSC El Paso Mobile Care Van this week as the van hits the road for the first time ever. Vaccination services will be offered by the mobile clinic, which is run by third-and-fourth-year medical students from the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine. The students will work with Immunize El Paso during Saturday’s visit to the Montana Vista and Sparks areas.
This visit is especially important because parents can have infants and young children vaccinated early, rather than waiting until they begin school. Vaccines will be free for children ages 2 months to 18 years of age.
The vaccines that will be administered include: influenza, MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis), meningitis, HPV (human papillomavirus), polio, hepatitis B, hepatitis A, varicella and Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type B). Parents will receive free education about these vaccines.
The Caring for Children Foundation of Texas generously donated the full-time, exclusive use of a Care Van mobile health unit to TTUHSC El Paso to address the great need for access to health care in the Paso del Norte region. The van will be used by the Foster School of Medicine’s Mobile Medical Student Run Clinic, the Texas Tech Physicians of El Paso (TTP El Paso) Family and Community Medicine Clinic at Kenworthy and the future Woody L. Hunt School of Dental Medicine’s public clinic.
The Caring for Children Foundation of Texas, which is sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, purchased the van and will pay all costs associated with its use, including insurance, maintenance, tolls and gas.
TTUHSC El Paso’s new Care Van will provide quality health care while promoting the university’s mission of improving the lives of people in our community by focusing on the unique health care needs of the border population through education, research and patient care.
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