Direct Marketers Advocates Immunization for Healthy Travel

For some time now, Joy Gendusa, CEO of PostcardMania, has been teaching entrepreneurs in many different industries about marketing and the virtues of direct mail. When she recently was asked to speak at Passport Health’s national convention in Chicago she learned something herself in the process – that immunization for US travelers was not just a good idea, but in many cases it was life saving.

Passport Health has 115 locations across the country and is the largest private purchaser of vaccines in the nation. Fran Lessons, Passport’s Founder, saw a need to be the source of specialized knowledge of critical health advice for people traveling abroad to particular exotic regions.

When Gendusa took on Passport Health as a client, she had no idea the risks she was helping people avoid. Diseases that can be prevented with vaccinations are a grocery list of illness that Americans are not familiar with and are not very prone to in the States. A recent update (August 2007) of these maladies and the regions affected listed on Passport’s website (www.passporthealthusa.com) include:

• YELLOW FEVER
• MENINGITIS
• TYPHOID FEVER  
• MEASLES-MUMPS-RUBELLA
• HEPATITIS-A & B
• POLIO
• RABIES

There's more to travel medicine than just shots according to Lessans who was quoted in a Washington Times article. She cited an example of an engineer who traveled to Calcutta on business and despite visiting a doctor before leaving he caught malaria which he spent nine months in the hospital for. Lessans pointed out that had he visited Passport Health, nurses would have advised him that mosquitoes’ peak feeding times in that region are one hour before dusk and one hour before dawn…and would have explained how to use insect repellent, which must be applied to clothing as well as skin to be effective.

“I think this business has a valuable service to anyone traveling abroad,” voiced Gendusa. “My two teenage boys want to travel to South Africa and I am so glad I now know about this service!”

About Passport Health:
Founded in 1997, Passport Health is the largest private purchaser of vaccinations in the U.S., second only to the Federal Government. Passport Health’s diverse services include on-site flu clinics and bioterrorism response. Passport Health specializes in travel immunizations, travel health counseling with itinerary-specific education, travel health products and international security counseling.  Passport Health has been involved in providing anthrax vaccinations to the U.S. military, Post Office and Federal employees, as well as providing smallpox vaccination training.   For more information, go to www.passporthealthusa.com

About PostcardMania:
PostcardMania is a full service postcard direct mail marketing company which includes graphic design, printing, mailing list acquisition and mailing services with free marketing advice. PostcardMania employs over 160 people, has seen positive expansion every year since its inception and is currently on a 22 million-dollar-revenue run rate for 2007. They have won many awards for their creativity and marketing farsightedness, such as the MarCom International Awards, the Stevie Awards, the Inc 500 List, the Creativity Annual Awards and the Webmaster awards – all of which the underlying theme contributing to their accomplishments is helping companies all over the nation expand. They print 4 million and mail 2 million postcards representing over 350 business, finance and industrial clients each week. Visit www.postcardmania.com