Case Study: Effectively Managed a Statewide Public Health Education Campaign to Prevent Zika Transmission

Challenge

Following a major outbreak of the Zika virus in South and Central America, public health officials determined that the virus had the potential to become a major public health threat in California. While the virus does not discriminate, it was found that certain populations are particularly vulnerable, especially those that cross and live near the California-Mexico border. For the state of California to be successful in fending off infections, key audiences needed to understand and guard against the risks.

Strategic Approach

From August 2017 through August 2018, KP managed a statewide education campaign for the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) focused on building awareness statewide and among hard-to-reach Latino audiences to encourage behavior change in at-risk populations through no-cost public service announcements (PSA), news coverage, and advertising material. The overall campaign theme urged California residents traveling to Zika-infected areas, “Don’t Bring Zika Home.” Outreach was focused on areas with a large Hispanic population such as specific neighborhoods and border communities.

Results + Impacts

To date, there has been no local mosquito-borne transmission of Zika in California which has saved that state millions of dollars in healthcare costs and countless lives. KP was successful in tailoring messages to populations near the California-Mexico border. KP recruited 100 partner individual organizations, including the UC system / CSU /community colleges, Hispanic health clinics, First Five, local elected officials, and local public health offices to share information with the community. KP and CDPH attended 20 local events in the San Diego and Imperial Valley area and partnered with 14 local mercados to share information onsite. We also secured no-cost public service announcements with four major Spanish-language newspapers and five Spanish-language television stations.