Member input sought on APHA’s national public health movement: Focus on pandemic flu, emerging diseases
APHA is encouraging its Sections, Special Primary Interest Groups, Caucuses, Student Assembly and Affiliates to play an active role in the Association’s new national public health movement.
The movement, announced this year, is designed to enable all Americans to protect themselves, their families and communities from preventable serious health threats. The multi-year initiative, which will rely on the involvement of APHA members, Affiliates and public health partners, will eventually include outreach, campaigns and materials.
In a recent e-mail, APHA President Pat Mail, PhD, MPH, CHES; Executive Board Chair Linda Degutis, DrPH, MSN; and Executive Director Georges Benjamin, MD, FACP, called on APHA members to play a key role in the movement, asking that each Section, SPIG, Caucus, Affiliate and Assembly identify three areas where their group can provide expertise to the movement. Leaders of each of the groups were asked to consult with their members and provide input to Association staff via a special e-mail address created for the movement, pandemicflu@apha.org . Individual APHA members are encouraged to use the e-mail address to submit their comments on the movement as well.
“This movement will be an outstanding and unprecedented opportunity for all of us, from all our perspectives, to pursue the goals of our individual units while also working collectively toward one unified goal,” said the e-mail to APHA leaders.
To engage the public’s interest in the initiative, pandemic flu and emerging infectious diseases was chosen by APHA’s Executive Board in January as the movement’s first focus. The focus was chosen because it is one that is of urgent health concern, resonates with the public and can encompass participation by APHA members and Affiliates.
A national poll released by the Harvard School of Public Health on Feb. 23 found that 57 percent of Americans are concerned about the potential U.S. spread of avian flu, which is the type of flu public health experts believe is most likely to cause a pandemic among humans.
If a moderately severe pandemic flu strain reached the United States, more than half a million people could die and 2.4 million could be hospitalized, according to a 2005 report from the Trust for America’s Health.
According to the World Health Organization, “the world is now closer to another influenza pandemic than at any time since 1968,” when the last of the previous century’s three pandemics occurred. From 1918 to 1919, an avian strain of pandemic flu killed about 50 million people globally.
Although APHA’s national movement has an overall goal of improving the health of the public, it is also designed to help Americans understand what public health is and generate support. While public health’s accomplishments over the course of the past century have led to longer, healthier lives for Americans, most of those same Americans do not recognize what public health is or how it impacts their lives.
“By involving average Americans and non-traditional partners, APHA hopes to create a powerful coalition that will advocate for the public’s health,” Benjamin said.
Further information on APHA’s national public health movement will be provided through The Nation’s Health, APHA Member News, the Association’s member news e-mail; Section and SPIG newsletters; the APHA Web site and other forums.
Beyond the movement, APHA is playing a role in planning for pandemic flu at the national level, advocating for preparedness funding and working with coalitions on the issue.
For more information on the national public health movement, e-mail pandemicflu@apha.org or call (202) 777-2441.
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