Video: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and Ad Council Launch National Lupus Awarenes...( Model Mercedes Yvette Joins Acting Su...),Health

Model Mercedes Yvette Joins Acting Surgeon General to Unveil the Campaign

NEW YORK, March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Eighty percent of young women in the United States say they have little or no knowledge of lupus, according to a national online survey released today by the Ad Council.

To view the Multimedia News Release, go to: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/adcouncil/37422/

In an effort to raise awareness of lupus among women who are at greatest risk for the disease, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Women's Health is joining the Ad Council to launch a national multimedia public service advertising (PSA) campaign to address the disease.

The campaign is being unveiled this morning by Acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson, M.D., M.P.H and model Mercedes Yvette in the Great Hall at HHS and the PSAs will be distributed to media outlets nationwide this week.

Lupus is a serious national health problem, affecting as many as one of every 200 Americans, according to the Lupus Foundation of America. Ninety percent of those with the disease are women and it is three times more common among minority women.

As a chronic auto-immune disease, lupus causes the immune system to mistakenly attack the body's own healthy cells and tissue as though they were foreign invaders, such as bacteria or viruses. It is one of the least recognized diseases and one of the most difficult to diagnose. It is an inflammatory disease that can attack many body systems.

The new PSA campaign primarily aims to reach minority women of childbearing age (18 to 44), who are at greatest risk for lupus. The objective is to help these women understand the disease and its effects and help them identify early warning signs so they can ask their doctor for a medical evaluation.