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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 1 , 2005

American Social Health Association Wins Award in 2005 National Health Information Awards Program 

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – The American Social Health Association (ASHA) was selected as a winner in the 12th annual National Health Information Awards. This program recognizes the nation’s best consumer health information programs and materials.

“Can’t You Take a Joke?  Facing Herpes Stigma…With a Smile,” from the Winter 2003 issue of the helper, ASHA’s quarterly newsletter about herpes, received a Bronze Award for Patient Education Information.

Those involved in the production of the helper and this article are: Lisa Hyatt Smith, writer and editorial consultant; Charles Ebel, vice president of Health Program Resources at ASHA; Anna Wald, MD, MPH, editorial consultant and chair of ASHA’s Herpes Scientific Advisory Committee; the helper’s editorial staff; ASHA’s Herpes Scientific Advisory Committee; and, experts and researchers quoted in the article – Edward W. Hook, III, MD, J. Dennis Fortenberry, MD, MS, and Susan Rosenthal, PhD.

“We were delighted to participate in the National Health Information Awards Program and were honored to be selected as a winner,” said James R. Allen, MD, MPH, president and CEO of ASHA. “Our winning entry was chosen from more than 1,000 entries judged by a national panel of health information experts.”

Published since 1979, the helper provides up-to-date quarterly information about all issues surrounding herpes including research, treatment and testing options, and partner communication. Individuals with concerns about herpes, educators, and health care providers subscribe to this publication. 

To download a free issue of the helper and to subscribe, please click here.>>

The awards program is coordinated by the Health Information Resource Center, a national clearinghouse for consumer health information programs and materials. The center, which houses a large collection of such public and private sector materials, promotes the distribution of accurate, timely consumer health information materials to professionals and managers in the field.