Communicating during a public health emergency requires a dedication to keeping people informed as quickly as possible. That’s certainly necessary now for companies, government agencies and non-governmental organizations dealing with the swine flu emergency.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began planning for a flu pandemic three years ago, as the AP noted , but in the digital age that was generations ago. The need to communicate effectively and clearly has only increased since then, but thankfully the tools available to do so have become more useful for officials and consumers alike.
For its part, HHS is now aggressively using social media to update the official response to the current emergency. Several divisions use Twitter, with main flu update info at: http://twitter.com/BirdFluGov.

As global communicators, Edelman is going to do its part. Today we established our own health crisis Twitter feed, which we will use to communicate official information, major developments and other important news. Our goal is to be a curator of milestones, data and information to keep our partners around the world more informed and more equipped to deal with this emergency.

I learned more than a decade ago working as a governor’s press secretary that during an emergency, such as a hurricane, people expect their leaders to be a source of solid, practical information and advice. We’d love to know your thoughts and comments.

(Disclosure: I once worked for a division of HHS)