National Adult Immunization Awareness Week (NAIAW) September 23-29, 2007 Featuring the “Adult Immunization: It’s Your Best Shot” campaign

Please join the California Adult Immunization Coalition (CAIC) in celebrating National Adult Immunization Awareness Week (NAIAW). The goal of the “Adult Immunization: It’s Your Best Shot” campaign, which will be held September 23 - 29, 2007, is to develop collaborative activities to improve awareness about the importance of adult immunizations.

Locally, on Sept. 28, a free adult flu shot clinic and press conference will take place from 9 a.m. to Noon at the Martin Luther King Center at 6401 Skyline Drive in Encanto. Free flu shots will be offered to those 18 years of age and older, with an emphasis on the senior population.

The press conference, which will start at 11 a.m., will feature Richard K. Brown, M.D., Kaiser Permanente Department of Family Practice; Stuart Cohen, M.D., MPH, FAAP; President-Elect, San Diego County Medical Society; Sue Hunt, PHN, Public Health Nurse Consultant for the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency Immunization Branch; Jason S. Kim, Pharm. D., Director of Pharmacy, Rancho Santa Fe Pharmacy and Wellness Center, San Diego California Pharmacist Association Past President.

FLU HOTLINE 1-877-FLU-0202: Beginning September 28th, please call for flu site locations in San Diego. FLU WEBSITE information: www.sdchip.org beginning September 28th click on the “no flu” icon.

Event sponsors include Community Health Improvement Partners, AARP San Diego Metro Chapter 4916, CareView Medical Clinic, County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency Immunization Branch, MedImmune, Inc., Kaiser Permanente, Rotary Clubs of San Diego District 5340, San Diego Black Nurses Association, San Diego County Aging and Independence Services, San Diego County Medical Society, San Diego National Association of Hispanic Nurses, Scripps Healthcare, and Sharp Senior Resource Center.

Also, on Sept. 29, at 10 a.m., San Diego AM1700 is scheduled to broadcast an interview about adult immunizations (including influenza) featuring Dr. Mark Sawyer, M.D., Medical Director of the San Diego Immunization Partnership and Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at UCSD School of Medicine and Adrienne Yancey, MPH, Chief of the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency Immunization Branch.

There are a many ways that you can raise awareness about the vaccines that can protect against serious diseases that affect thousands of adults every year in the United States. During NAIAW, you can hold vaccine clinics, offer grand rounds presentations, send an op-ed piece to a local newspaper, coordinate a healthcare worker vaccination campaign, or plan an event that focuses on protecting the family. Finally, you can stay healthy and avoid missing work by getting up-to-date with your own vaccinations, including an annual flu vaccine and a Tdap (tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis) booster.

The CAIC NAIAW Planning Group has compiled a variety of tools and resources to support your NAIAW efforts. These include:

• Fully scripted and CME-ready slide presentations
• A Healthcare Worker Vaccination Toolkit and
• A collection of health education and media tools including a sample press release and op-ed template (some are available in Spanish)

Visit the CAIC website today (www.immunizecaadults.org) and click on “National Adult Immunization Awareness Week” on the navigation bar to download these materials.

We hope that you will help us to promote NAIAW this year and will find our resources to be useful. If you do use our tools, we would love to hear how you used them and your recommendations for how they can be improved for future NAIAW campaigns. Click on “Evaluation” from the NAIAW webpage to complete an online evaluation or get information on an evaluation conference call. If you complete an evaluation or participate on our call, you will be entered in a raffle to win one of four $100 University of California bookstore gift certificates, which can be redeemed online or onsite.

If you would like to learn more about CAIC or NAIAW or would like to join the Coalition and support ongoing efforts to improve adult immunization systems and coverage levels, please contact Julia. She would be happy to share information and resources!

Thank you for your commitment to improving adult immunization coverage levels during NAIAW and throughout the year. Together, we can improve adult immunization rates to reduce absences from work, school, and social events; save healthcare funds; and most importantly, save lives.

Julia Heinzerling, MPH CAIC
NAIAW Co-chair
323-757-7244, extension 228
323-779-1190 (fax)
jheinzerling@slahp.org

Nisha Gandhi, MPH CAIC
NAIAW Co-chair
510-540-2236 (telephone)
510-883-6015 (fax)
Nisha.Gandhi@cdph.ca.gov