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AIDS-CHILE:
More Condoms,
Less TV
Gustavo González
SANTIAGO, (IPS) - This
September the Chilean government
will launch an AIDS prevention
campaign that places greater
emphasis on the use of condoms,
but will take only limited
advantage of television as a
means of spreading its message,
a decision that health care
specialists fear will make it
less effective.
The controversy that has always
surrounded government campaigns
to curb the spread of AIDS,
mainly due to opposition from
conservative Catholic Church
sectors, has taken on greater
significance in view of the
upcoming presidential elections
in December, prompting greater
caution on the part of the
Chilean authorities. Beginning
in 1993, and every two years
since, the Chilean government
has undertaken campaigns aimed
at raising AIDS awareness
through posters, newspapers,
magazines, radio and television.
The information provided through
these initiatives has been
consistently censored by the
Catholic university stations in
Santiago and Valparaíso and by
Megavisión, a privately owned TV
network.
On Jun. 22, Chilean Health
Minister Pedro García announced
that the government would be
launching this year's campaign
after the Dec. 11 general
elections, to keep it from
becoming - politicised." But
barely 48 hours later, he
abruptly reversed that decision
in the face of protests from the
three main presidential
hopefuls.
Socialist Michelle Bachelet,
candidate for the ruling
centre-left coalition
Concertación por la Democracia,
and the two right-wing
contenders, liberal businessman
Sebastián Piñera and
conservative former mayor of
Santiago Joaquín Lavín,
unanimously refuted García's
contention that the electoral
race could interfere with a
public health initiative.
As a result, on Jun. 24, García
reported that the campaign would
kick off in mid- or late
September. He added that it
would not include TV
commercials, but would
concentrate mainly on ôfield
work and radio messages," to
avoid disputes with television
stations.
On Jun. 28, Interior Minister
Francisco Vidal clarified that
while the campaign would not
make use of TV commercials, it
would include brief public
service announcements, shorter
than the average commercial, and
he urged all TV stations to
cooperate by broadcasting them.
That same day, the Chilean
authorities signed an agreement
with the United
Nations-sponsored Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria to extend a cooperation
agreement initiated in 2003,
thereby securing over 24 million
dollars in funds up through the
year 2008.
The extension of the cooperation
agreement was cast into doubt
following the health minister's
first announcement, which even
prompted warnings of possible
impeachment proceedings in the
Chilean Congress given his
failure to support such an
essential public safety task as
AIDS prevention.
The first case of HIV/AIDS was
reported in Chile in 1984, and
since then over 3,000 people
have died of the disease.
The latest statistics from the
National AIDS Commission, dating
from 2004, indicate that there
are over 6,000 reported cases of
people with AIDS in Chile and
another 6,500 who are infected
with HIV but have not yet
developed the disease. However,
the government estimates that
the real number of people
infected with the virus is
32,000, while non-governmental
organisations place the figure
at over 50,000, out of a total
population of 15.9 million.
ôChile as a whole cannot just
look the other way when six
people contract HIV/AIDS every
day," stated Vidal, referring to
the statistics.
The last five years have seen a
growing ôfeminisation" of
HIV/AIDS in Chile, as the rate
of infection has increased 29.1
percent among women, compared
with 15 percent annually for
men.
Most of the women newly
diagnosed with the virus are
homemakers who have been
infected by their husbands. As a
result, the newest government
HIV/AIDS campaign will seek to
raise awareness of the
importance of condom use in both
heterosexual and homosexual
sexual relations when there are
risk factors involved, such as
extramarital sex or sex with
multiple partners.
This increased emphasis on
condom use was praised by Dr.
Alejandro Afani, head of the
immunology department at the
public University of Chile
Clinical Hospital.
Rodrigo Pascal, coordinator of
Vivo Positivo (Living Positive),
an umbrella group linking 30
non-governmental organisations,
said that he did not want to
comment on the new campaign
ôuntil it is actually on the
air."
ôFrom my perspective and from
the perspective of Vivo Positivo,
promoting the use of condoms is
definitely the direction that
the campaign should take," he
told IPS.
ôWhat we have to do is make
information available to young
people, because 45 percent of
young people who are sexually
active do not use protection,"
Dr. Enrique Accorsi, a lawmaker
from the co-governing Party for
Democracy and former president
of the Chilean Medical
Association, commented to IPS.
ôWe have to emphasise condom
use, and education, and also the
benefits of a stable
relationship with a single
partner, as well as abstinence,
and we have to place equal
emphasis on all of them, not on
just one method," he added.
As far as Accorsi is concerned,
ôin any campaign to educate the
public, television is
irreplaceable." He said he hoped
the public service announcements
announced by Vidal would be
effective, because ôfailing to
use television is like
condemning the campaign to
complete and utter failure."
For his part, Afani commented to
IPS that television ôis
fundamental, and (the campaign)
needs to be very well focussed,
with very direct language, well
aimed and with no backtracking,
not like the way things have
been done in the past, but
rather like it is done in
countries where these campaigns
have been successful."
Because of the fierce opposition
to the promotion of condom use
raised by the influential
Chilean Catholic Church, past
initiatives have contained
overly cautious and sometimes
ambiguous messages, a fact that
limits their effectiveness,
unlike the more successful
campaigns carried out in
countries like Spain or Brazil,
according to specialists.
Pascal believes that it is
crucial for the mass media and
especially television to be
incorporated in HIV/AIDS
prevention campaigns. He also
maintains that these efforts
should be ongoing, and aimed
particularly at the most
vulnerable sectors at the times
of greatest risk.
Given that young people are
especially prone to engage in
sexual relations, drug use and
other high-risk behaviours
summer, Pascal noted that ôthese
are times when prevention is
fundamental, although they are
not the only ones."
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