Rhonda M. Medows, MD, Commissioner	Sonny Perdue, Governor

DCH Encourages Georgians to Roll Up Their Sleeve

ATLANTA – Today, Dr. Rhonda Medows, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) announced the launch of the Roll Up Your Sleeve campaign.  The campaign is DCH’s statewide, grassroots educational campaign to educate Georgians about the seasonal flu and novel influenza A (H1N1) and encourage citizens that fall within high-risk groups to get vaccinated. 

"Reports of novel H1N1 continue to create some questions and concerns in our communities,” said Dr. Medows. "While the current data indicates that the severity of the illness caused by the novel H1N1 virus is not increasing, it is important that Georgians arm themselves with knowledge and take action to avoid getting or spreading the seasonal flu and novel H1N1 flu viruses.” 

DCH created the Roll Up Your Sleeve campaign to highlight the importance of Georgians within high-risk categories to get a seasonal flu and/or novel H1N1 vaccination, discuss how everyone can prevent the spread of the flu viruses, and understand the steps to take if they have symptoms.  The Roll Up Your Sleeve campaign materials are currently being rolled out to each of the 18 health districts.

"The health districts play a vital role in our communication efforts with Georgia’s citizens," said Dr. Medows.  "We are confident that a collaborative and unified education campaign that is state-led and district-centric will benefit every community.” 

Campaign efforts around Roll Up Your Sleeve include:

• distribution of an educational brochure throughout the state,
• public service announcements,
• promotional posters providing information about vaccination sites; and
• utilization of social networking Web sites to disseminate information.  

For Roll Up Your Sleeve updates, follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GADCH.