The Wisconsin Department of Health Services started a new advertising campaign Monday called “Let’s Get Vaccinated,” which will encourage more Wisconsin children and families to get swine flu vaccines.
A statement released Monday by DHS said television, online, outdoor and radio advertisements — running in Spanish, English and Hmong to reach minority groups — will run throughout the state. The campaign will be funded by $500,000 in federal money for H1N1 prevention.
The campaign’s primary focus is encouraging schoolchildren and families to get vaccinated, the statement said, but college-aged students have become part of DHS’ primary target group for vaccines as well.
“Now that we have more of the vaccine, we must focus on making sure everyone who needs to be vaccinated shows up to receive it,” DHS secretary Karen Timberlake said in the statement.
According to Seth Boffeli, spokesperson for DHS, about 50 percent of Wisconsin residents want to get vaccines or have already gotten them. He said the campaign hopes to increase this percentage, especially among the target group of children and young adults.
“I think that we always knew we had two real challenges: one was to get as much vaccine here as we could, two was to continue to pull everyone out of the woodwork that we feel should get the vaccine,” Boffeli said.
Boffeli said Wisconsin has given between 150,000 to 200,000 doses of the H1N1 vaccine on a weekly basis since it was released earlier this fall. He said the supply of vaccines should not be dramatically affected by the new advertising campaign.
He added there is a possibility weekly allotments from the federal government will increase as demand increases nationally.
Boffeli said it is also important for university students to be cautious about their health and get the H1N1 vaccine before traveling over winter break.
“When students go away to various parts of the country and world for break, they bring back some viruses and those viruses in a college setting can spread quickly,” Boffeli said. “It is very important to get vaccinated so when you come back in January you’re not sick.”
Mary Makarushka, spokesperson for University Health Services, said UHS is pleased with the “Let’s Get Vaccinated” campaign and the department’s decision to focus attention on children and young adults without existing health conditions.
Executive Director of UHS Sarah Van Orman said even though it is not a convenient time for many students to get vaccinated, it still is important to do so. She said UHS is concerned a large-scale outbreak like the one seen this fall could happen again.
“It’s a hard time of the semester to promote vaccines because of finals, but we are encouraging students to get vaccinated,” Van Orman said.
Van Orman said a large-scale clinic that will provide vaccines will be available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 4 at the Southeast Recreational Facility on Dayton Street. She also emphasized students can visit UHS to get vaccines as long as they have their student ID with them.
