August is National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM). This observance highlights the need to improve national immunization coverage and encourage all people to protect their health by being immunized against infectious diseases.
During the month, state and local public health departments across the country will be promoting back-to-school immunizations, encouraging college students to catch up on immunizations before they move into dormitories, and reminding everyone that immunizations are needed through adulthood. NIAM activities are being coordinate by the National Public Health Information Coalition (NPHIC) with assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
This team is putting the final touches on the NIAM communications toolkit which will be launched during the first full week of July. The toolkit is designed to help public information officers, immunization program managers and Coalition leaders work together to communicate about the importance of immunizations during NIAM. The toolkit is structured to help you communicate about immunizations for a different population each week of the month:
- Week 1: Back to school (children)
- Week 2: Off to college (young adults)
- Week 3: Not just for kids (adults)
- Week 4: A healthy start (babies & pregnant women)
The toolkit contains a number of resources for each week:
- Key messages (including social media messages)
- Sample news releases and articles
- Suggested events and strategies
Stay tuned, call-in information is coming soon for an upcoming webinar where we will launch the Campaign and learn about the Toolkit and other resources for promoting NIAM.