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HIV/AIDS programmes have 'profound effect'
Thomas Hartleb. 06 November 2006. Independent Online. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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A survey has revealed that 14 television and radio programmes and four print media campaigns to raise HIV/AIDS awareness have had a "very profound" effect on people's attitude and behaviour.
"The survey shows that communication programmes have made a significant impact on key areas such as increasing condom use and HIV testing," Dr Warren Parker, executive director of the youth drama series Tsha Tsha, said on Monday.
Half of those who had ever been tested for HIV/AIDS in South Africa were tested in the last year. This, Parker said "with great confidence" was largely due to programmes and print campaigns.
He noted that it was "somewhat cynical" of e.tv to air wrestling at the same time as SABC's Tsha Tsha and potentially draw viewers away from an educational programme.
Tsha Tsha was found to have had "significant impacts" on condom use, HIV discussion and testing and helping people with HIV/AIDS. It had been seen by 14 million people at one time or another. Soul City reached 70 percent of the population and had significantly affected stigma reduction.
Condom use increased from 34 percent among those not reached by any of the programmes to 60 percent among those exposed to ten or more programs, said Doctor Lawrence Kincaid, associate scientist in the department of health at Johns Hopkins University in the US. He said the TV and radio programmes created an environment which allowed communities to discuss HIV/AIDS.
Dr Sue Goldstein, who works on Soul City, said the lack of a common message and the "large confusion" created by the South African government since 2000 over whether the HI-virus caused AIDS had ensured the country's HIV/AIDS death toll was still largely unchanged.
She cited Uganda as an example where "a national response" had made inroads into combating the spread of the disease.
Goldstein said that whites were "particularly under-accessed" by the programmes. This, she said, was partly due to the SABC's requirement that 80 percent of programming be in indigenous languages.
Dr Saul Johnson said that deciding to focus more on blacks was partly an "economic decision" due to budget constraints. It was also due to the fact that HIV prevalence was much worse in this section of the population.
"We should be spending a lot more money (on HIV/AIDS awareness programmes)," he added.
While he predicted a drop in HIV-prevalence rates due to the impact of media programs, he said the effects of behaviour change would take five to 10 years to work their way through the population.
He said more research was needed to increase the sophistication of the messages the public was sent. He said fear-based messages didn't work, and the ABC - Abstinence, Be Faithful and Condomise - message was not enough.
"There are a lot of underlying factors about why you can't do these (ABC) things. You have to start digging down."Johnson was currently research manager for the consortium managing Khomanani - the government's HIV/AIDS mass media campaign.
The survey was conducted by the Johns Hopkins University, Health Development Africa; the Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation and the Soul City Institute.
It questioned more than 8 000 people across South Africa between the ages of 15 and 65.
The survey looked at, amongst others, the effect of the SABC's television drama Tsha Tsha, Soul City, Takalani Sesame, the government's Khomanani programme, and the Love Life campaign.
For more on this survey, please visit the URL on the righthand side of this page. |
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