Putting the public in public health

As noted on our website, the International Association for Public Participation has given one of its 2007 Core Values Awards to The Keystone Center, the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Association of State and Territorial Health Organizations (ASTHO) for their efforts to put the public into public health.

The organizations were honored for the Public Engagement Project on Community Control Measures Against Pandemic Influenza, a series of meetings held last fall and winter in four locations nationwide. At the meetings, local residents were asked to offer input into how to prepare for pandemic flu, deter the spread of influenza, and keep communities safer during an influenza outbreak. The Study Circles Resource Center - soon to be renamed Everyday Democracy - helped design and organize an earlier public engagement project on pandemic flu with the award-wining partners. Read more here, and see all the 2007 award winners here.

In other public-health news, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials are holding a public web dialogue today through Thursday on vaccine prioritization guidelines. You must be registered by 2 p.m. Eastern today to take part, but anyone can observe. Click here for more info.

Finally, World AIDS Day was this past Saturday. Click here to access a transcript and audio of the 2007 World AIDS Day webcast as posted by the Department of Health and Human Services.