Prevention Matters

A rap video for swine flu prevention was named Partnership for Prevention’s “Best Prevention Idea of the Week,” while the widespread presence of dirty restrooms on cruise ships and their link to norovirus outbreaks was named “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week.”

The Best/Worst Idea awards are a regular feature of Prevention Matters, the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Each week, Partnership for Prevention's staff will choose the designees based on nominations of items in the previous week's news submitted by members, staff and the public at large. To submit a nomination or for more information, contact Damon Thompson at dthompson@prevent.org.

BEST

Cigna Enlists Rapper on H1N1 Prevention

Health care provider Cigna Corp. has produced a rap video to teach kids how to avoid getting "swine" flu. The video, featuring University of Massachusetts physican Mache Seibel, a.k.a. DocRock, teaching five prevention steps, such as sneeze into your sleeve, wash your hands and "keep you fingers outta your eyes, mouth and nose, cuz that the places H1N1 goes." The 30-second video is free on YouTube at www.youtube.com/cignatv.

A team of researchers from several Boston-area institutions report in the current issue of the medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases that they found "widespread poor compliance" with regular cleaning during unannounced inspections of dozens of cruise ships. Moreover, the researchers found a link between the dirty restrooms on ships and outbreaks of norovirus -- a common gastrointestinal illness that has caused problems for the industry.