CHL Avian Influenza Communication

Informative TV spots were developed by the CHL team addressing households and small farmers, and backyards breeders. The TV spots show families how to protect themselves from bird flu, and poultry breeders how to deal with poultry safely to protect themselves and their poultry. The spots began airing on all the major state-owned television channels on the same day the outbreak was confirmed. PARC Media Monitoring Services reported that the spot was reaching 82%, or 34 million adults, within 1 day. CHL collaborated on the production of all 3 TV spots on AI, which are airing nationally in 2006 and which carry messages of modes of transmission, hygiene and safe preparation of poultry for consumption, and safe handling of live poultry. The spots also promote a national AI hotline. They can be downloaded and/or viewed online - click here.

The AI hotline received close to 300,000 calls between February 18 and April 18 2006. In addition, CHL produced public service announcements (PSA) on AI as a joint activity with Sesame Workshop's children's TV programme Alam Simsim as part of the "Ask...Consult" campaign. Through a collaboration between Johns Hopkins University, Al Karma Edutainment (Cairo, Egypt), and Sesame Workshop, 2 PSAs sharing concrete strategies for preventing bird flu such as hand washing and proper hygiene - featuring the Alam Simsim characters Felfel, Khokha, and Nimnimn - began airing on Egyptian state television channels in early March 2006. These spots were supplemented by leaflets for children, caregivers, and service providers. In April, a PSA with special messages on keeping children safe from AI exposure began airing regionally via satellite. Working through the MOI, CHL secured prime-time placement of the spots locally on Channels 1 and 2 through the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU). The spots aired alongside the 30-minute Alam Simsim series every weekday afternoon in an effort to ensure a high reach.

Prior to the outbreak, CHL project partners began distributing a series of flyers carrying messages on how families both with and without live poultry can protect themselves from AI infection. More than 2 million flyers - one for households and one for small farmers, and backyard poultry - as well as a fact sheet for pharmacists have been distributed through channels such as the MOHP's 5000+ clinics, outreach workers from the government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and the national "Ask...Consult" network of 13,000 private pharmacies. The materials are available on the CHL website as well on the State Information Service Family Planning Information, Education and Communication subproject (SIS-IEC) Centre database, to download and potentially to be used as a resource for other Arabic-speaking countries facing Avian Influenza. Newspapers and magazines reprinted hundreds of thousands more as inserts, and continue to cooperate in efforts to spread public awareness on AI. In addition, volunteers in CHL's community programmes organised to address the AI threat in their villages, holding meetings in homes to disseminate AI health messages and setting up committees to screen all the houses breeding domestic birds and to close shops that sold live birds.

Pharmacies have proved to be a critical source of public information on AI, and 30,000 posters were delivered to "Ask...Consult" network pharmacies, to be posted on storefronts. Hundreds of thousands of AI flyers for providers and consumers were also distributed to "Ask...Consult" pharmacists. Said one spokesperson from the Pharmacy Syndicate, "We were thirsty for the information. The public was scared. The materials really helped the pharmacists answer all their clients' questions and decrease the fear."

Capacity building of communication professionals, emergency crews, and service providers has been operating parallel to public awareness activities. A workshop for journalists was held in May 2006 aimed at raising and maintaining awareness of the risks of AI among the public, and countering misinformation and rumors. In collaboration with the MOHP, CHL produced a training video for the emergency crews the government has mobilised to collect and properly dispose of infected and dead birds from farms. The video covers safety procedures for protecting the team members themselves, and for containing the virus. A programme of orientation workshops for service providers throughout the country is planned to begin in May 2006.

In-clinic seminars on AI for the general public will commence in the beginning of the 3rd quarter of 2006 at 3,500 MOHP health units, and a Q&A booklet based on questions received via the MOHP AI Hotline is in production as an insert for newspapers and magazines. A booklet for use in trainings and orientations is also being produced.

Avian Influenza, Health.

According to the contact for this project summary, because of the partnership and cooperative mechanisms established between the Ministry of Health and Population and the Ministry of Information through the Communication for Healthy Living (CHL) Project, Egypt was in a unique position to respond swiftly and effectively to the crisis.

The SIS chairman serves as the official spokesperson on AI in Egypt, and is committed to transparency in outbreak communication. CHL provided the State Information Services (SIS) with content for their AI media center and website to facilitate timely access to official information. CHL aims to continue to work with national and international partners in Egypt to meet the challenges that lie ahead in communicating about the risks of AI, reducing misinformation, providing prevention information and promoting the safe behaviors that will protect the health of Egypt's people.

CHL builds upon 25+ years of USAID-supported partnership between Egypt's Ministry of Health and Population and the Ministry of Information/State Information Services. An Executive Steering Committee coordinates cross-cutting Family Health programmes in the Public, Private, and NGO sectors covering the following key health areas: Family Planning and Reproductive Health, Maternal and Child Health, Infectious Diseases, and Healthy Lifestyles.