KHOPOTSO: The research considered more than 20 AIDS communication interventions, including eight TV and six radio programmes. Among these were the national Khomanani campaign, Soul City and the Soul Buddyz series. The survey was conducted nationally among 8 000 people from age 15 to 65. A key finding is that media-based communication programmes have enhanced people’€™s attitudes on prevention efforts, including the use of condoms.    

LARRY KINCAID: We narrowed the sample down to those who’€™ve had sex before ‘€“ that’€™s 83%… Did you do anything with the person you most recently had sex with to prevent HIV’€¦ One response was ‘€œused condoms’€, they could say ‘€œfaithful to my partner’€, ‘€œabstinent’€’€¦ Speaking for themselves, 45% said they were using condoms.                    

KHOPOTSO: Dr Larry Kincaid of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the United States, one of the authors of the study. The research also looked at the different outcomes between those who were exposed to the communication programmes and those who were not.

LARRY KINCAID: Not exposed to any of these programmes, their condom use is 21%… Up to 65% condom use among people who saw all the programmes. We’€™re not controlling or adjusting for other factors like being single, being young, whether you have children or not’€¦ But that’€™s the overall effect of these programmes by themselves.        

KHOPOTSO: Impacts were also found on people’€™s perceptions on HIV and AIDS as well as their ability to openly discuss the issue.  

LARRY KINCAID: One of the surprising things we found is that the TV and radio AIDS programmes looked like they’€™re creating an environment which facilitates community discussion of AIDS and local leadership and support for people living with AIDS. If you think about some of the outstanding shows like Khomanani, Soul City and Tsha Tsha, people see those in local communities and then the next day or a couple of days later they will go to church or a mosque and they will go to a community meeting and they will already have seen in the media people talking about HIV and AIDS and prevention and HIV testing and now, ARVs. And so, it’€™s much easier for them to bring it up locally and to focus attention on it locally. We found that that’€™s definitely the case.                    

KHOPOTSO: Warren Parker of the Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation (CADRE), another partner in the study, adds that the campaigns have also had a positive influence on people taking up Voluntary Counselling and Testing services.

WARREN PARKER: Fifty percent of the people who have ever been tested for HIV were tested in the last year. We can say it very confidently that a strong influence in that level of response has been campaigns because that’€™s been a focus of many of the campaigns.

KHOPOTSO: However, Parker says the successes are not enough. Media-based campaigns still need to address more issues with regard to HIV/AIDS.

WARREN PARKER: Stigma reduction, improving knowledge of a whole range of aspects of HIV, promoting particular prevention methods, and so on. But we’€™ve seen an over-emphasis in certain areas. And it certainly demonstrated to us the need to shift the campaign around in terms of its thematic focus. So, if we’€™re looking at prevention, for example, (a) very high emphasis on condoms really needs to be balanced by emphases on other things. Delaying sexual debut is something that doesn’€™t come through strongly enough’€¦ Similarly, reducing the number of partners one has over a life-time needs to be addressed.                      

KHOPOTSO: The report presents a picture of hope. But on the ground, it might not look like there is a change in people’€™s attitudes and habits. What are the causes for this? Dr Sue Goldstein works with the Soul City Institute for Health.

Dr SUE GOLDSTEIN: Sexual behaviour doesn’€™t involve one person, it involves two people’€¦ You can tell people to remain faithful but if their partner is not faithful, it doesn’€™t really help them all that much. The second issue is that over this period of time we haven’€™t had enough political support. There has been a huge amount of confusion around HIV starting from in 2000 where there was confusion about whether HIV caused AIDS, going into treatment issues’€¦ And if you look at our epidemic’€¦ our death rate is one of the only death rates that’€™s gone up in the world’€¦ We should be pulling out the army. We should be going out to every door to door,  saying to people ‘€œremember to protect yourself, remember to protect yourself, keep yourself safe’€. But we’€™re not doing that.