Not Fatal, Is It?
November 19th, 2007 by Anindita Sengupta
Globally, more than 40 per cent of respondents do not understand that AIDS is always fatal. In India, where rates of HIV are rising, 59% believe that HIV is a curable disease. These are the disturbing findings of this study on what people across nine countries think of AIDS.
In a collusion of opinion and fact, this first-ever perception audit also found that 86 per cent of adults in the United States, U.K., France, Russia, China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa believe stigma and shame to be a contributor to the spread of HIV. Seventy-six per cent report lack of access to treatment to be a problem as well.
Some astonishing fallacies about access to treatment seem to be in circulation as well. According to the survey, many people mistakenly believe there is currently a cure for HIV. People also believe treatment is more widely available than it is. According to the study, “nearly half of all respondents believe that most people diagnosed with HIV are receiving treatment, when in fact only one in five people who needed treatment received it in 2006.”
The TIME article on this also points out:
The survey also suggests an enduring stigma surrounding HIV. Nearly half of the people surveyed reported being uncomfortable working with those who are HIV positive, while slightly more than half of the respondents did not want to live in the same home as someone infected with HIV.
It seems that a quarter century of AIDS education, public health campaigns and a continuous “mainstreaming” of HIV-positive people in the U.S. and Europe have done little to sort out the public’s confusion. The problem may be that while advances in treatment and prevention have fueled a misguided sense of complacency about the disease, personal prejudices have kept the stigma and shame about HIV alive.
Besides public awareness campaigns, mainstreaming HIV/AIDS awareness into education is imperative. But in many countries, attitudes towards sex and sexuality make it difficult to discuss topics like safe sex. Cultural taboos forbid speaking to children or teenagers about such matters and health becomes a distant lower priority as compared to “morality”. Avert looks at how HIV/AIDS education for young people is commonly approached in some detail here. And UNICEF has some resources that you can download here.
Of course, culture is an important parameter to keep in mind while communicating. But innovation and sensitivity should not hinder honesty or plainspeak when it comes to important, potentially life-and-death impacting factors. For example, look at this MTV commercial for AIDS prevention.
It’s funny but I’m unsure of whether it conveys the seriousness of the issue. People will laugh and even remember the ad, but will they really use a condom because it tells them to? What do you think?
The image in the post is by Fraga from Mexico and was part of a UN World AIDS Day exhibit.