Perspectives in Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Understanding AIDS: An Information Brochure
Being Mailed To All U.S. Households
Approximately 107 million English-language versions of a
brochure,
Understanding AIDS, will be distributed to every home and
residential
post office box by the U.S. Postal Service between May 26 and June
30,
1988. A Spanish-language version will be distributed in Puerto
Rico and
will also be available upon request after May 26, 1988. This
national
mailing marks the first time the federal government has attempted
to
contact virtually every resident, directly by mail, regarding a
major
public health problem. The brochure is reproduced in its entirety
beginning on page 262.
The brochure was prepared by CDC in consultation with the
Surgeon
General and a wide spectrum of public health officials, medical
experts, advertising consultants, and members of the general
public.
Every effort was made to make the presentation simple, direct, and
understandable to the widest possible audience. The purpose of the
mailer is to provide understandable information and to encourage
safe
behaviors that can prevent HIV infection. The mailing has three
objectives:
To make it clear how AIDS is and is not transmitted. People
can
protect themselves without having unnecessary fears.
To make it clear that behaviors, not identification with "risk
groups," put people at risk. As the brochure states, "who you
are
has nothing to do with whether you are in danger of being
infected
with the AIDS virus. What matters is what you do."
To stimulate informed discussions about AIDS within families,
between sexual partners, and at all levels of society by
presenting the facts and showing people how AIDS relates to
their
own lives.
CDC has established a major effort to ensure that as many
people
as possible read and discuss this mailing. Major steps, including
contacts with state health departments and manufacturers of AIDS
testing kits, have been taken to handle the increased requests for
information and testing that this brochure may generate. CDC will
add
up to 1,000 operators to the National AIDS Information Line
(hotline)
(1-800-342-AIDS) to handle the 1.5 million new calls anticipated
during the mailing period. At present, the hotline is handling
120,000
calls per month as a result of the "America Responds to AIDS"
public
information campaign.
Hotline callers wishing to talk with a counselor or requesting
information about local counseling and testing will be referred to
local hotline numbers or, if none exist, will be served by
operators
who staff the National AIDS Information Line. More than 300
Spanish-speaking operators will be available to answer a toll-free
hotline (1-800-344-SIDA) to take orders for Spanish-language
copies of
the brochure.
To measure the impact of this brochure, CDC will use data
gathered
through the AIDS Knowledge and Attitudes supplement of the
National
Health Interview Survey (NHIS). This survey is conducted through
interviews with a probability sample of American households by the
Bureau of the Census for the National Center for Health
Statistics.
CDC will also monitor other indicators that may reflect public
response to the brochure, such as calls to the national hotline
and
the National AIDS Clearinghouse, requests for information to
health-care providers, and media presentations of AIDS
information.
In spite of all these efforts, there are things the brochure
will
not do. It will not reach people who cannot read or who read only
languages other than English or Spanish. It may not reach the
homeless
or drug abusers, who need intensive outreach efforts. CDC is
working
with state and local health departments and community
organizations to
target ongoing educational efforts for the hard-to-reach. One
million
advance copies of the brochure are being sent to doctors, nurses,
dentists, pharmacists, hospitals, and public health officials so
that
they can be prepared to answer questions from their patients and
clients.
NOTE: The pamphlet, "Understanding AIDS," is not available
electronically. Copies were mailed to all state health departments
for
receipt by Wednesday, May 4.
Disclaimer
All MMWR HTML documents published before January 1993 are electronic conversions from ASCII text into HTML. This conversion may have resulted in character translation or format errors in the HTML version. Users should not rely on this HTML document, but are referred to the original MMWR paper copy for the official text, figures, and tables. An original paper copy of this issue can be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402-9371; telephone: (202) 512-1800. Contact GPO for current prices.
**Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to mmwrq@cdc.gov.
