In March of 2020, anticipating the expected disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Latinx communities in Durham and surrounding counties, an interdisciplinary group of Duke Health leaders, clinicians, and local activists launched an ambitious grassroots outreach effort to address these challenges. Their goal was to identify gaps and needs and propose changes in systems and policies to promote health equity.
The Latinx Advocacy Team & Interdisciplinary Network for COVID-19 (LATIN-19) is led by a group of leaders from the Duke School of Medicine and School of Nursing, as well as local Latinx advocates and allies, and offers critical outreach to a community that accounted for 75% of the positive coronavirus cases in Durham County in the summer of 2020. LATIN-19 is now a multi-sector group representing academic institutions, healthcare systems, public health departments, public school systems, community-based organizations, government, faith communities, and others.
LATIN-19 has improved access to testing, contact tracing, and health care delivery for the Latinx community. Members also worked to increase the amount of Spanish language COVID-19 information available through multiple PSAs and extensive media appearance on local, regional, and state news. Additionally, LATIN-19 helped guide state and local policy changes. All these efforts helped reduce the COVID-19 positivity rate among Durham’s Latinx community.
The team effort has proved remarkably successful. Notable recognitions include receiving a Duke Presidential award in 2021, and being featured in an award-winning documentary by Univision.
During National Hispanic Heritage Month, we want to share more about the ongoing work of LATIN-19. More than a year after its creation, the work of LATIN-19 has been well-documented in the North Carolina Medical Journal, chronicling the group’s evolution from coronavirus pandemic responder to champion for health equity in North Carolina and across the globe.
Recent efforts by LATIN-19 have focused on vaccination, administering more than 12,000 immunizations during LATIN-19 co-sponsored events. At these events, LATIN-19 and partner organizations create a welcoming environment by providing Spanish-speaking patient navigators, interpreters, offering boxes of food and PPE, and providing COVID-19 testing. Durham County recently achieved a notable milestone: reaching the same rate of vaccination among Hispanic residents as non-Hispanic residents.
The cornerstone of LATIN-19’s work is the weekly virtual convening, an ongoing meeting that has been held weekly since March 2020, attracting 80-100 participants every week. The agile and dynamic structure of these meetings, with follow-up from the leadership team, creates a nimble pathway for quick and effective communication between the community and leaders in larger systems like Duke Health, the NCDHHS, and local schools. This process leads to important changes in real-time. Partnerships have contributed significantly to the success of LATIN-19. This includes work with community-based organizations like La Semilla, El Centro Hispano, and local churches.
LATIN-19 was cofounded by Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, MD, Associate Professor and Health Equity Director in the Duke Department of Family and Community Health, and Gabriela Maradiaga Panayotti, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics for Duke Children’s Primary Care. Leonor Corsino, MD, MHS, Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Associate Dean of Student Affairs for the Duke School of Medicine, and co-director of the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s Community Engaged Research Initiative, is part of the LATIN-19 executive team, which also includes leaders from the School of Nursing and the community.
Gabriela Maradiaga Panayotti, MD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health
Co-founder of LATIN-19