Vaccine campaign launched

Faculty and graduate students in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media’s Interdisciplinary Health Communication (IHC) seminar are working with the South Central North Carolina Partnership for Public Health (SCPPH) on an HPV vaccine campaign with the message, “Vaccinate today. Protect her tomorrow.”

The campaign, launched June 1 in four N.C. counties, encourages mothers to take action against cervical cancer by getting their adolescent daughters vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) – a common virus that can cause cervical cancer.

The school’s students and faculty designed a communication strategy for the campaign after conducting focus groups and surveys with mothers in Cumberland, Harnett, Richmond and Robeson counties. The school will remain involved by analyzing and evaluating the campaign's impact.

Jane Brown, James L. Knight Professor in the school, teaches the IHC seminar that developed the campaign. Joan Cates, a lecturer in the school, is the principal investigator on the study and project leader for the IHC  students who included Autumn Shafer, Emily Brostek, Miriam Hartmann, Carrie Meier, Ali Groves and Carmina Valle.

Health departments and local health care providers will promote the HPV vaccine project through posters and brochures in English and Spanish displayed in offices, retail businesses and community agencies throughout the four counties.

SCPPH is part of the statewide organization known as the North Carolina Public Health Incubator Collaboratives, which are teams of local public health departments promoting regional collaboration to accomplish better public health.

Other partners in the HPV Vaccine Project include the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the North Carolina Division of Public Health and several local organizations.

More information on the project is available online at www.HPVvaccineproject.org.