The recent launch of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 2009 Flu Prevention Public Service Announcement (PSA) Contest reminded us how important a role health and risk communications play in responding to outbreaks and preventing the spread of infectious diseases. For those who haven’t heard about the PSA contest, HHS has invited the public to create a video PSA with a message about preventing or dealing with the flu and to post it on YouTube. The winner will be eligible to win a $2,500 cash prize.

This video contest is only one small piece of a much larger effort by HHS and CDC to prevent the spread of flu, both H1N1 and seasonal, and to reduce its impact on populations. This outbreak response, however, is fundamentally different from responses to previous outbreaks. Not only is outbreak of the novel H1N1 virus the first pandemic of the 21^st century, it also represents the first time that the federal government has fully employed 21^st century communication technology as part of a major outbreak response.

Like many Americans, I closely followed the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as the “Economic Stimulus Plan.” As a public health professional, I am keenly interested in the parts of the stimulus bill that promote health, such as the Prevention and Wellness Fund, which Jeanne Lambert wrote about as a “Wellness Trust” long before she was Deputy Director of the White House Office of Health Reform.

The CDC has recognized the fluoridation of drinking water as one of ten great public health achievements of the twentieth century. Since its introduction into water supplies following WWII, water fluoridation has helped improve the quality of life in the United States by reducing pain and suffering related to tooth decay, time lost from school and work, and money spent to restore, remove, or replace decayed teeth. Nearly 70 percent of U.S. residents, or about 184 million people, who get water from public water systems have fluoridated water.

Everyone knows that health communication and marketing can raise awareness about health issues and promote prevention behaviors. But did you know that health communication and social media marketing plays a critical role in responding to outbreaks? Right now, CDC is participating in a unique, interagency collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to use interactive and social media to enhance the response to the recent Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak and its associated recall of peanut butter and peanut-containing products. Many of my colleagues in the National Center for Health Marketing are working closely with scientists and communicators in the National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and Enteric Diseases (NCZVED), including people in NCHM’s Division of eHealth Marketing and the Emergency Risk Communication Branch in the Division of Health Communication and Marketing.

In reviewing the work of health marketing at CDC last year, I am extremely proud of the amazing things we achieved. If one word were required to sum up 2008, that word would have to be busy! In 2008, we created and launched CDC-TV, an online series of direct-to-consumer health videos. We posted exciting and interactive Health-e-Cards, created original podcasts and vodcasts with centers throughout CDC, and greatly expanded our outreach with web-based and mobile technologies. We also advanced and strengthened our science base through increased research, evaluation, and collaboration. Because of these efforts, people can now access CDC’s science-based health messages and resources in ways that are more customer-centered than ever before, not only in print, but also on the air, interactively on the web, on their mobile devices, and through the social media they use.

I got my flu vaccination. Have you gotten yours? If you haven’t, it’s not too late to prevent getting the flu. In fact, that’s the main message of National Influenza Vaccination Week, which is taking place this week, December 8-14, 2008. While flu season in the United States generally runs from October through May, people who get vaccinated in December or later can still protect themselves and others from the flu. Most of the time influenza activity peaks in January. Although the CDC has long promoted annual influenza vaccination as the single most important thing one can do to prevent catching the flu, far too many people still do not take this preventive action. Each year, on average in the United States, more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu complications and about 36,000 people die.

This week, I’m proud to mention a recent success in disseminating a much needed CDC health message at one of our nation’s most prestigious museums, the Smithsonian. The original artwork from the Eagle Books series developed for children by CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation will be exhibited at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. and New York City through January 4, 2009. The exhibition, “Through the Eyes of the Eagle: Illustrating Healthy Living for Children,” represents the first time the museum has ever featured an exhibition to address health issues that face Native Americans. Though the book series focuses on Native American children, it speaks to all children and their parents about a health issue that increasingly threatens our kids: diabetes.

Wikipedia describes a social network as “a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, ideas, financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, conflict, trade, web links, sexual relations, disease transmission, or airline routes. The resulting structures are often very complex.”

To help prepare for National HIV Testing Day (June 27, 2008), AIDS.gov is sponsoring a Webinar for Bloggers (sometimes called a ‘blogginar’) on Tuesday, June 17th at 2:00pm eastern time. Beginning with a similar webinar last year, AIDS.gov has been communicating directly with bloggers so they can help encourage their readers to get tested. Since one in four Americans living with HIV is unaware of having it, this effort is a crucial piece of protecting and improving the health of people in the US. It also is an excellent example how Web 2.0 strategies can be used to impact health.

I’ve asked Melinda Frost, former lead for NCHM’s Global Communication and Marketing team, to write a guest blog for this month’s edition of Health Marketing Musings. Since early November, Melinda has served in a unique capacity for our Center. She works under the US Embassy in Beijing, China as the first US CDC health communications officer placed overseas. One of her roles is to determine how US CDC can best partner with China’s Ministry of Health to increase their ability to deliver tailored, culturally appropriate health information to affected populations at national and sub-national levels. –Jay Bernhardt