Posted by Karl Wackerberg | Posted in Social | Posted on 26-11-2009
24.5 million peoples in Sub-Saharan Africa are living with HIV and 2.5 million people died from HIV/AIDS diseases in 2006. The HIV prevalence in Sub-Saharan Africa is 6.1% among those aged 17-49. (Source)
Wikipedia states three factors contributing to the spread of HIV virus:
- Stigma attached to admitting to HIV infection.
- Denial that the HIV virus causes AIDS.
- Myths attached to the use of condoms.
Even if free anti-retroviral medicine were to be distributed in Africa it can never be as effective as prevention programs. The health care in many of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have prevention programs implemented and has tones of resources to carry it through. Many of those resources originate from richer countries. Different projects have also been undertaken by many of the volunteer organizations to minimize the spread of HIV in Africa.
A new idea of how to educate about HIV infection is to give away free movies where there is a short information clip just before the movie starts.
The movies don´t have to be free – but they can at least be subsided. I think this idea posses a great opportunity for the movie industry to show their social responsibility.
What do you think? Do you have any other idea? Contribute with your comments!
Hi,
I do think that all kinds of information in the subject is important. In movies is one way of doing it but maybe not the most effective for getting to the public in Africa.
The other day I heard about HIV vaccine. A researcher team in Thailand has managed to generate response from the immune system on a vaccine, which was some kind of break through. 30% of the sample reacted positively to the vaccine. This research team is furthest in the development of HIV vaccine and it seems that there still is a long way to go before this solution is available on the market (source http://www.sr.se/vetenskapsmagasinet). Information programs are the best solution for now..