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Help
Help for HAN Message Archive:
Tips on searching
To narrow your search by date
Tips for more accurate searching
The Health Alert Network (HAN) Message Archive webpage
provides a repository of approved CDC messages that
have been previously disseminated to federal, state,
local public health officials/organizations since
Sept 11, 2001. These messages are listed in descending
order of message number by chronological date. The list
of messages reflects their CDC HAN message number, date
of dissemination, and main title.
To view a particular message in the list, just click on the message
title portion. The entire message will be displayed on the page.
Messages can be printed using either the print icon in the tool
bar or the Print option of the main menu.
Use the browser's Back button at the tool bar
to return back to the message listing.
When a search is performed, the messages that meet the
specified search criteria will be also listed in
descending order by chronological date. The results
will also include the number, date and title for each
message. To view a message, click on the title portion.
To return to the search results after viewing a
document, click the browser's Back button. To return
back to the search box, use the browser’s back
button once again.
To return to the home page from the search
results, click the browser's Back button
for a second time.
Tips on Searching
To search for specific words, type the words
separated with spaces in the box next
to Search for. Click on the Search button
to process the results. To cancel your selection,
click on the Cancel button.
Searches are performed in three ways: by selecting
all of the words, any of the words or the exact phrase
options from the Results should contain pull down list.
- All of the words (the default setting) will
find documents that contain each of the key words
entered in the Search for box. This search replaces
the use of the Boolean operator "and". For example,
to find documents that contains both "SARS" and "West Nile",
enter both words and select all of the words option.
- Any of the words option will find documents that
contain one or more of the key words. This search
replaces the use of the Boolean operator "or".
For example, to find documents that contain "SARS"
or "West Nile", or both words, enter those words
and select any of the words.
- The exact phrase option will find documents that
contain the exact phrase you entered. For example,
to find documents that contain the phrase "West
Nile update", enter that phrase and select the
exact phrase.
By selecting one of these options you can either refine or
broaden your search criteria. The default setting performs
a search using All of the words option.
NOTE: It is not necessary to enclose the phrases or
words in double quotes. The search engine is not case
sensitive; for example, typing a word in capital letters
will retrieve the same result set as the same word in lower case.
Once you have typed the word(s) you want to search, click
on the Search button to process the results. To cancel
your selection, click on the Cancel button.
In addition to specific “words” you can refine or
broaden your search criteria by selecting a Message Date.
You can order your search results by descending order
of message date.
To narrow your search by date, specify a message date or range of dates.
To search for messages on a specific date, enter the date in
mm/dd/yyyy format in the box next to Message Date and
select specific date from the pull-down list.
- To search for messages disseminated within a range of
dates, enter the starting date and ending date separated
by a colon, i.e. mm/dd/yyyy:mm/dd/yyyy and select specific
date from the pull-down list.
- To search for all messages disseminated before or
after a specific date, enter the date in mm/dd/yyyy
format and select and after or and before from the
pull-down list.
By default, the system will search for words within
the entire message (including references). To narrow
your search even further, search for words that appear
within messages titles only by selecting the Title
(only) button.
Click on the Search button to process the results
or click on Cancel to cancel the operation.
The system will automatically display all messages
that met your search criteria on the results page.
Tips for more Accurate Searching:
- If too many search results are found, try using
the Title (only) button. Messages containing the
specified search words in the title are likely to
be more relevant to your criteria. If you ordered
the results by date and the search was too broad,
try using an specific date if know and/or the title
button instead.
- If too few search results are found after entering
several words in the Search for box, try using the
any of the words option or enter fewer words in the
Search for box. You can also use the all fields button
to broaden the search to the entire message.
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This page last reviewed: November 10, 2003
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