APHA Announces New Campaign Aimed at “Building the Foundation for a Healthy America”
 Campaign Serves as National Public Health Week 2009 Theme  

San Diego, October 26, 2008 – The American Public Health Association (APHA) today unveiled a new campaign that will serve as the theme for National Public Health Week (NPHW), April 6-12, 2009, and will guide APHA’s work through the week and beyond. The theme, “Building the Foundation for a Healthy America,” aims to establish the critical role public health must play as we focus our efforts on improving our nation’s health.

Announced during the opening session of APHA’s 136 th Annual Meeting and Exposition, this year’s NPHW theme coincides with the important national, state and local elections just ahead and with the nation’s attention directed towards our failing health system. The campaign emerged from the growing recognition that even though we spend more on health care than any other nation, our nation is falling behind in many important measures of what it means to be healthy.

“Building the Foundation for a Healthy America” aims to insert public health into current policy discussions directed at addressing the problems within the U.S. health system. Through National Public Health Week and beyond, APHA and its members, partners and affiliated state public health associations will come together to raise awareness and take steps to address the role of public health in this important issue.

“We have the potential to greatly improve our population’s health in the future,” said Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, FACEP (E), executive director of APHA. “By recommitting ourselves to support our nation’s public health system, we can build on the successes of the past and establish the solid foundation needed for a healthy nation.”

For over a decade, the American Public Health Association has organized National Public Health Week to educate the public, policy-makers and the public health community about critical public health challenges the nation is facing. Visit www.nphw.org to learn more about this year’s NPHW campaign and the role public health must play in building the foundation for a healthy America.