Nurses' use of the media to provide public health information during a hepatitis A outbreak.

Abstract

s t t s u r w T WAS FRIDAY AFTERNOON, and, although we were still in our offices at Robert Morris Uniersity, thoughts drifted to plans for the upcoming eekend. And then, the long shadow of Mark Weintein, our public relations director, appeared in the allway. Now, the fact that he did not call but came to ur offices clearly indicated to us that he had somehing important to talk about. We were not wrong. A ocal television station was looking for health care exerts who would be willing to answer questions this vening on a live call-in talk show about the recent ocal hepatitis A outbreak. Hepatitis A had been conracted by hundreds of patrons at a popular chain resaurant in a local mall. It had served thousands of peole over the several weeks before the outbreak. This epatitis A outbreak turned out to be the largest ever in he United States. Therefore, many people were rushng to receive immunoglobulin injections to prevent ontracting the disease. Others, with symptoms, were eeking advice for protecting family members. There as much confusion about basic issues of transmission, isk, and prevention. We were motivated to respond to the request for nformation for several reasons. Most importantly, as urses, one of our key functions is to provide current nd accurate health care information to the public, but