In the face of the national flu vaccine shortage of 2004-2005, the Berkeley Public Health Division, in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley and the Berkeley Unified School District, initiated a community education campaign focusing on the primary spreaders of the flu virus – children. The “WHACK the Flu” campaign was conceptualized by a group of graduate students from the Berkeley School of Public Health and was further developed by a multi-disciplinary staff from the Berkeley Public Health Division. The project was targeted towards Berkeley elementary school children with accompanying resource materials for their parents and teachers.The WHACK acronym stands for: W: Wash your hand often; H: Home is where you stay when you are sick; A: Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth; C: Cover your coughs and sneezes; and K: Keep your distance from sick people.

The goal of the WHACK the Flu project was to provide strategies for children to employ to reduce the transmission of communicable diseases to their families and other contacts.

Over 2500 students participated in the 10-minute program that included a skit and hands-on activities conducted by trained graduate students from the Berkeley School of Public Health. During a two-week period, 105 classroom presentations were made at 10 elementary schools in the Berkeley Unified School District. Berkeley Public Health will be comparing past and current flu-related emergency room visits to local hospitals and school absentee rates once the flu season has concluded.