INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Raising Public Awareness of an Organization that Protects Public Health Worldwide

The International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) is composed of 20,000 members from more than 155 countries around the world. Since its inception, ISID has been dedicated to improving the care of patients with infectious diseases, the professional development and standing of clinicians and scientists in the field, and the control of infectious diseases around the world, as well as meeting the educational needs of developing countries. Members of ISID make a difference with the clinical recognition, global reporting, laboratory discovery, policy development and prevention of the spread of infectious diseases, and yet the organization existed with a low profile not in keeping with the vast importance of its work. SM& was hired to help raise awareness of the organization through media relations, placing the society in major newspapers and making them well-known as the go-to society for medical expertise.

A prime opportunity to insert ISID into a global news story came in May 2007, when a young Atlanta lawyer was discovered to have traveled to Germany and back while knowingly infected with a highly drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, potentially causing a dangerous outbreak of the disease. Having already developed relationships with newspaper health reporters, the SM& team lined up interviews with ISID President Richard D. Wenzel, M.D., M.Sc. Newspapers were seeking sources outside of the Centers for Disease Control and the lawyer's family - both deeply involved in the case - so Dr. Wenzel's expert commentary on the dangers of tuberculosis and the responsibilities involved in traveling while infected helped cement the credibility of every article.

Major news stories featuring Dr. Wenzel appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, United Press International and national physicians' trade magazines. And as the story developed, Dr. Wenzel continued to be used as a regular source for reporters and television networks, in each case bringing more national and international mainstream renown to ISID.