AI.COMM - Avian and Pandemic Influenza Resource Link

Introduction
8
When the AI.COMM project
was created, funded and
launched in 2006, the
situation with avian
infl uenza (AI) in Asia
was dire.
Outbreaks fanned out across Asia and
threatened in Africa, leaving behind a
trail of dead poultry, frustrated farmers,
overwhelmed governments, and an
alternately skeptical and apprehensive
public. Over the past three years, the
situation with avian infl uenza, known
more precisely as H5N1 virus, has evolved
in myriad ways. The epidemiology and
basic knowledge about the whys and hows
of transmission have gone from broad
assumptions to specifi c facts, and audiences
and populations targeted as most-at-risk
also have been adjusted accordingly.
As with any emerging infectious disease there
are new fi ndings about the virus and its nature
which AI.COMM applied to its behavior
change and communication strategies and
messages to refl ect this new understanding
about the virus. Because of these fi ndings –
and our experiences in the fi eld – AI.COMM
has evolved from emergency response to
longer-term capacity building and behavior
change activities. The project has employed
a fl exible, social marketing approach that
builds on evidence and research and has
allowed for the modifi cation of information
and strategy based on the rapidly changing
situation and information environment.
Throughout the project, the intent was
to deploy an integrated communication
strategy as the best hope for changing
behaviors to prevent and control disease
outbreaks. Posters and brochures alone
cannot change behaviors, but when they are
combined with advocacy efforts, mass media,
interpersonal communication, social
mobilization and social networks, messages
are reinforced and more likely to make a
difference. AI.COMM employed a seasoned
staff of behavior change and communication