Me?
That?s what the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene wants residents asking themselves when it comes to hepatitis C virus testing. Launching a billboard-based campaign in Baltimore City and Baltimore County that started last week, the health department is trying to encourage testing for hepatitis C.
An estimated 100,000 people in Maryland have hepatitis C, with a majority of those infected unaware they are a carrier of the virus, said Dr. John Krick, the health department?s director of epidemiology and disease control.
“We hope this will increase people?s interest [in getting themselves tested],” Krick said. “The billboards are pretty catchy.”
Designed with help from Clear Channel Outdoor, the ad on the billboard has various pictures of people set on a bright-yellow background. The text is red and black and says “Me?” followed by “Hep C. Find Out ? HepCMaryland.org.”
Hepatitis C infection is four times more prevalent than HIV infection and is the most common blood-borne infection in America, according to a health department news release.
“We have been asked by the state legislature to raise public awareness, and that has been [the] goal for several years,” said Robin Decker, nurse consultant for the state Center for Immunization.
Searching for a way to get the message out, Decker found a similar billboard design in Missouri. She reached out to area advertising companies and came together with Clear Channel Outdoor, an advertising firm that specializes in billboards that had an office in Laurel.
Working with Clear Channel and the state, Decker was able to secure a donation from the Maryland Partnership for Prevention and grant funding from GlaxoSmithKline to pay for the printed materials.
Qualifying its message as a public service announcement, the health department plans on having the billboards up for nearly a month, at virtually no cost to it.
“You want to make sure it?s clean and appropriate,” said Ryan Wilson, an account executive with Clear Channel. “The colors are great, and it?s so bright that you definitely can?t miss it.”
