Communication Plan

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Contents

1. Introduction  
2. Purpose and Scope of the Syphilis Elimination Communication Plan
3. Target Audiences
   1. Policymakers
   2. Health Care Providers and Associations
   3. Community Representatives
4. Cross-Cutting Tactic
5. Evaluation of the Communication Plan
   APPENDIX 1: Communication Plan Implementation

A. Introduction          Back to Table of Contents

In October 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with federal, state, and local partners, launched a national plan to eliminate syphilis. In the plan, CDC identified the key strategies needed for elimination, including: expanded surveillance and outbreak response activities, rapid screening in and out of medical settings, expanded laboratory services, strengthened community involvement and agency partnerships, and enhanced health promotion. With the nation's syphilis rate at the lowest level since the government began tracking the disease in 1941, and with syphilis cases reported in only a small number of U.S. counties, the time is right to achieve elimination. The plan calls for eliminating syphilis from the United States by the year 2005.

Who is affected by syphilis? Communities burdened by poverty, racism, unemployment, low rates of health insurance, and inadequate access to health care are most affected. Communities of color, particularly African Americans who are living in poverty, are disproportionately affected. Also affected are persons who engage in high risk sexual behavior.

Syphilis elimination: Why now?

• Syphilis is a preventable and curable STD. It's currently at its lowest rate ever reported.
• Eliminating syphilis will reduce one of the most glaring racial disparities in health. The rate of infectious syphilis among African Americans is 34 times higher than for White Americans.
• Eliminating syphilis will decrease the spread of HIV infection. Syphilis increases HIV transmission at least 2-to-5 fold. Syphilis in men who have sex with men has been increasing in cities across America.
• Eliminating syphilis will improve infant health. Syphilis transmission from mother to fetus during pregnancy can cause stillbirths or congenital infection.
• Eliminating syphilis will strengthen public health capacity. The persistence of high rates of syphilis is a barometer of community health, indicating a breakdown in the most basic public health capacity to control infectious diseases. Syphilis elimination will help rebuild public health infrastructure, resulting in a positive effect on decreasing other STDs.
• Syphilis elimination will reduce health care costs. It will save almost $1 billion annually in syphilis-associated direct and indirect costs.

A comprehensive health communication plan will help syphilis elimination gain momentum at the national and local levels. Sustained support for the syphilis elimination plan must come from three key target audiences: policymakers, health care providers and associations, and community representatives from affected communities. The communication plan will help develop synergy among syphilis elimination activities across the U.S., at the national, state, and local levels, and among the target audiences.

Health communication programs can be designed to inform, influence, and motivate institutional or public audiences. They can:

• Increase awareness of a health issue, problem, or solution;
• Affect attitudes to create support for individual or collective action;
• Demonstrate or illustrate skills;
• Increase demand for health services; and
• Remind or reinforce knowledge, attitudes, or behavior.^1.

^{1.  Making Health Communications Programs Work: Planning Guide, HHS; April 1992}

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