U.S. Will Mail AIDS Education Leaflet to All Households in June

After numerous false starts, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control are finalizing plans to mail an AIDS educational leaflet to every American household in June.

The mailing of an estimated 108 million brochures--one to every postal patron in the country--is expected to be completed by the end of June, according to Paula Van Ness, the director of the CDC’s National AIDS Information/Education program.

The mass mailing is meant to “include all the AIDS information people (need to) know and have questions about,” Van Ness said in an interview Tuesday here at the World Summit of Ministers of Health on AIDS.

But still uncertain is just how explicit the pamphlets will be in discussing topics such as the sexual practices that can transmit the AIDS virus and the use of condoms.

The mailing program “offers us a unique opportunity to distribute AIDS information to people who need it and may not seek it out voluntarily,” Van Ness said. “It is also a very strong statement about the seriousness of the disease.”

The AIDS mailing was mandated by Congress as part of the 1988 budget bill, which was passed at the end of December.

As the mailing date approaches, the federal government is expected to launch a “major public relations effort . . . to alert people so they will expect it,” Van Ness said.

Originally, she and other CDC officials had hoped to distribute AIDS pamphlets to households last October. But the project was delayed by disagreements within the U.S. Public Health Service and the Reagan Administration over how to proceed. Following the congressional mandate, the estimated $17-million project has gotten back on track.

The advertising firm of Ogilvy & Mather is designing a brochure that can be read at a reading level between fourth and sixth grade and is testing it on “focus groups,” a standard marketing technique, Van Ness said.

By comparison, the well-known October, 1986, U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on AIDS requires a post-high school reading level for full comprehension, according to Van Ness. About 8 million copies of the surgeon general’s report have been distributed.

CDC officials are also working with postal officials to determine the number of postal patrons within each zip code district so that the correct number of brochures can be supplied.

All the mailed AIDS pamphlets are to be in English, although Spanish-language brochures will be available by telephone request, Van Ness said. Printings in other languages are not planned.

Here in Britain, for example, which has reported 1,227 AIDS cases, a similar mailing was conducted in October, 1986. And in California, Berkeley mailed AIDS education pamphlets last October to each of its 55,000 households.