Risk Communication

Documents in PDF format require the Adobe Acrobat Reader®. If you experience problems with PDF documents, please download the latest version of the Reader®.

It is important during an emergency event to convey complex information clearly and simply. The communication resources on this page provide information about crisis, emergency, and pandemic flu risk communications.

Resources

• Crisis & Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) course (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
  The online, instructor-led course has been designed to serve those who will perform crisis and risk communication and media relations in the event of a public health emergency. The target audiences include federal, state, and local public health professionals; healthcare professionals; emergency medical services professionals; preparedness partners; and civic and community leaders.
• Communications Planning Webcast (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Bank and Partners)
  
  This event on September 26, 2006, is a videoconference-based distance learning seminar on communications planning on avian and human influenza preparedness.
• Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication: By Leaders For Leaders (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
  • Pandemic Influenza
    
    The HHS/CDC Crisis & Emergency Risk Communication (CERC): Pandemic Influenza course is a 1½ day training that offers a combination of influenza communication tabletop exercises and informative group discussions.
  • Course Book (PDF - 695 KB) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
  • Participant's Manual (includes slides) (PDF - 447KB)
• Communicating in a Crisis: Risk Communication Guidelines for Public Officials (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)
• Effective Media Communication during Public Health Emergencies (World Health Organization)
• Terrorism and Other Public Health Emergencies: A Reference Guide for the Media (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services)
• Pandemic Influenza Pre-Event Message Maps (PDF - 523.98 KB)
  
  "Message maps" are risk communication tools used to convey complex information, and to make it easier to understand. Each primary message has three supporting messages that can be used to provide context for the subject of the primary message. This file contains message maps for both avian flu and pandemic influenza.
• USDA Key Messages for Avian Influenza  (US Department of Agriculture)
  
  Message maps for three scenarios in the event of a detection and/or outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the United States
• Pandemic Influenza--Past, Present, Future: Communicating Today Based on the Lessons from the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic 

  (PDF - 1.72 MB)
  
  These workshop proceedings provide a historical retrospective review of the impact of the 1918–1919 influenza pandemic. A panel of experts discuss how the 1918–1919 pandemic affected daily life in the United States, and what lessons can be learned and applied to planning today.
• WHO Handbook for Journalists: Influenza Pandemic (PDF - 738 KB) (World Health Organization)
• WHO Outbreak Communications Guidelines (PDF - 452 KB) (World Health Organization)
• Influenza Pandemic Periodicity, Virus Recycling, and the Art of Risk Assessment (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)