Health Emergency Mass Notification: Lessons Learnt from the H1N1 Pandemic in Tehran

Background: timely notification is of great importance inhealth emergencies. so identifying the most important sources ofinformation used by people in emergencies seems necessary. theobjective of this study was to assess peoples’ level of awarenessconcerning the symptoms, routes of transmission, prevention, andtreatment of h1n1 at the time of the pandemic and also to identifytheir most important source of information.methods: two telephone surveys were performed at the beginningof levels five and six of the pandemic at a four?month interval ontwo populations. using a questionnaire, random phone numberswere called and 662 and 701 individuals from tehran were surveyedat the two phases, respectively.results: peoples’ level of awareness concerning the disease,symptoms, its routes of transmission, prevention, and treatmentof h1n1 had increased in the second phase of the study. at thesame time, people were less afraid of the disease in the secondphase. the most important sources of information used were tv,newspapers, and radio, respectively.conclusions: mass media including tv and newspapers wererecognized as the most important sources of information usedby the people in emergencies. it seems that designing educationalprograms and synchronizing the media’s policies with healthauthorities can help fight future health emergencies and preventdelays in notifying people.