Siman Nuurali on efforts to improve vaccination rates in Minnesota communities

Siman Nuurali, a quality and patient safety specialist, was actively involved in outreach efforts with the Somali community during and after the 2017 Measles outbreak in Minnesota. Along with state health department officials, Nuurali and her colleagues from Children’s Minnesota worked with local imams, mosques and day cares in the community to encourage vaccination. Rather than focusing on the fact that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism, they used a dual strategy to simultaneously educate on the importance of getting children vaccinated and the challenges of having a child with autism. Experts around the country frequently look at these efforts as a success story; however, state health officials say vaccination rates still struggle. Read the full Wall Street Journal story: The struggle to fight measles in close-knit communities.