Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA) Campaign Targets People Who May Have a Deadly Progressive Lung Disease and Don’t Know It and At-Risk Communities
Silver Spring, Md. (PRWEB) June 14, 2017 -- Awareness for people suffering from pulmonary hypertension (PH), an illness that is often misdiagnosed, can be a life or death matter. The Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA) is bolstering its awareness efforts to ensure that more people are diagnosed early and accurately. New public service ads (PSAs) — some featuring PHA celebrity champion national recording artist Traci Braxton — aim to reach people at risk for developing PH and those who are unaware that they may have the deadly progressive disease.
Pulmonary hypertension is high blood pressure in the lungs. Symptoms can include shortness of breath, dizziness and fatigue. Because these symptoms can mirror common, less-threatening illnesses, patients often go years without being diagnosed, or are misdiagnosed as having other illnesses such as asthma or COPD. PH can exist alone or be associated with other conditions such as connective tissue disorders (scleroderma, lupus and others), heart disease, HIV and COPD. If left untreated, PH can lead to right heart failure and death. With early, accurate diagnosis, treatments can extend and improve the quality of life for many people living with the disease.
Ads featuring Braxton, who stars alongside her family on the hit WE tv reality show, Braxton Family Values, will appear in June on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor trains. Along with her photo, the ads will include the quote, “Two of my sisters have diseases associated with pulmonary hypertension.” Braxton’s sister, Grammy Award winning artist Toni Braxton, has lupus. Another sister, national recording artist Tamar Braxton-Herbert, has battled blood clots in the lungs. Researchers find up to nine percent of lupus patients also have PH. One form of PH, Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), is believed to occur in up to four percent of patients who have suffered a blood clot.
In addition to the Amtrak ads, PHA TV PSAs will appear on monitors on American Airlines in-flight video screens and in targeted social media ads. The outreach is an extension of PHA’s Heart2CurePH campaign, the first coast-to-coast national multimedia PH PSA campaign, launched in November 2015. The ads continue to appear in donated national media, including urban public transit spaces, major print publications, professional sports programs and on local and national TV and radio stations. Thanks to an estimated $69.9M in donated space and time, the Heart2CurePH campaign has made an estimated 140 million impressions across the U.S. since it launched in 2015.
Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor trains run up and down the routes each day, providing continuous exposure to a captive audience in four large markets: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC; as well as Baltimore, Wilmington, Newark, New Haven and Providence, and smaller markets in between. The Heart2CurePH in-flight PSAs will reach more than 950,000 people in August and October on nearly 800 total American Airlines’ Dallas-Fort Worth, New York (JFK & LGA), Miami, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Charlotte, Phoenix and Washington DC flights.
About the Pulmonary Hypertension Association
Headquartered in Silver Spring, Md., the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA) is the country’s leading pulmonary hypertension organization. PHA’s mission is to extend and improve the lives of those affected by PH; its vision is a world without PH, empowered by hope. PHA achieves this by connecting and working together with the entire PH community of patients, families, health care professionals and researchers. For more information and to learn how you can support PH patients, visit http://www.PHAssociation.org and connect with PHA on Twitter and Instagram @PHAssociation and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/PulmonaryHypertensionAssociation.
Kelly Williams, Pulmonary Hypertension Assoc., https://www.phassociation.org/, +1 (240) 485-0768, [email protected]
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