On the Front Page...

Friday, Feb. 4 is National Wear Red Day — a day when thousands of Americans nationwide, including federal employees, will take women's health to heart by wearing red to show their support for women's heart disease awareness. More women die of heart disease than all cancers combined, yet less than half of women know that heart disease is their biggest health threat and most fail to make the connection between its risk factors and their personal risk of developing heart disease.

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National Wear Red Day is an annual event held on the first Friday in February, sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The event is part of The Heart Truth, NHLBI's national awareness campaign for women about heart disease. The centerpiece of the campaign is the Red Dress — the national symbol for women and heart disease awareness. The dress works as a visual red alert to get the message heard loud and clear: "Heart Disease Doesn't Care What You Wear — It's the No. 1 Killer of Women."

NHLBI staffers turned out in red on Feb. 6, 2004, and plan to do it again in 2005.

NIH'ers enthusiastically celebrated the first National Wear Red Day in February 2004. Stephanie Glezos Bell, NIH presidential management fellow, said: "I really like the red dress campaign, and I was very excited to get [NIH director] Dr. Zerhouni's message about National Wear Red Day. I forwarded it to everyone in my office and was so excited to see the majority of people here wearing red today — both men and women. I just wanted to let you know that it really did raise awareness in our office!"

For 2005, the Office of Personnel Management will help spread the word to federal employees and encourage them to wear red on Feb. 4 to unite in the national movement to give women a personal and urgent wake-up call about their risk of heart disease.

Everyone can participate in National Wear Red Day by showing off a favorite red dress, shirt or tie or by wearing the Red Dress pin. Encourage your family, friends and coworkers to do the same. To help you plan a celebration, the Wear Red Day Toolkit and Red Dress pin are available at www.hearttruth.gov.

Join in and help spread the word about women and heart disease. Send your best picture (electronic file) of your Wear Red Day celebration to Ann Taubenheim at NHLBI.