Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) - United States

IAC's central strategy is acting as an information clearinghouse in an effort to help healthcare providers and the public stay abreast of immunisation requirements, benefits, and breakthroughs. The IAC website is the primary medium for providing and exchanging this information. The site provides educational materials in a variety of formats and a number of languages. These materials include videos, online resources, screening questions, record cards, directories, state-specific information, photos, quizzes, and an "ask the experts" section. Printed materials about vaccine-related issues are copyright-free, ready-to-copy, and reviewed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Health care providers are encouraged to make copies of these free printed materials and to distribute them to their patients and staff.

In addition to this website, IAC has created and maintains the following sites:

• Vaccine Information for the Public and Health Professionals - provides links to information about specific diseases and the vaccine that prevents it. Each page includes a Q & A section, photos and/or video footage, true stories of individuals who have suffered or died from the disease, descriptions of public policies, and references to other resources;
• Directory of Immunization Coalitions - a database of local, state, regional, national, and international immunisation coalitions. Interested health professionals, parents, immunisation advocates, and others may contact these coalitions for resources, ideas, or volunteering; and
• Model Programs for Hepatitis A, B, and C Prevention - health and social service professionals who develop or manage programmes for populations at risk for hepatitis can use this site to read about other programmes and their strategies.

IAC also provides information directly to members of the immunisation community. As of this writing, its 3 printed newsletters have a combined circulation of nearly 300,000. Specifically, published since 1991 and illustrated by the founder's own children, Needle Tips is a 24-page newsletter mailed to up to 150,000 health professionals twice each year; Vaccinate Adults! promotes adult immunisation recommendations and is mailed to up to 150,000 adult medicine specialists twice each year; and Vaccinate Women is published once each year and mailed to 35,000 obstetrician/gynecologists and others who are concerned with women's health issues. The Coalition also publishes 2 listservs. IAC Express provides immunisation news on a weekly basis to health professionals and others interested in immunisation issues. Hep Express is a monthly electronic newsletter devoted to news about hepatitis A, B, and C prevention and treatment.

IAC engages in advocacy work, as well. In 1988, while working at a community health centre in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, IAC's founder (a physician) discovered that most of the refugees and their children citywide were not getting screened for or vaccinated against hepatitis B. She and her colleagues launched the Hepatitis B Coalition to promote hepatitis B vaccination for all children 0-18 years; HBsAg screening for all pregnant women; testing and vaccination for high-risk groups; and education and treatment for people who are chronically infected with hepatitis B. When IAC was granted tax-exempt status in 1994, the Hepatitis B Coalition became an official programme of IAC.

Immunisation & Vaccines.