Editors to fight HIV/AIDS in a big way

By Pelekelo Liswaniso
(SAEF- Zambia Chairman)

The Zambia chapter of the Southern African Editors Forum (SAEF) is very excited to join the rest of the world in commemorating the World AIDS Day falling today on December 1, 2006.

This is a special day because it is an opportunity for people worldwide including Zambians to unite in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

In line with this year’s theme: Stop AIDS; Keep the Promise – SAEF Zambia has decided to be fully involved, hence our decision to come up with this supplement and join the rest of the international community, some of whom have expressed their views in this special supplement we call Media Business Unusual.

We are also excited by the idea of media talking to itself about this pandemic and more especially to demonstrate to the world that we are not passively concerned about others being infected but that we are equally infected or affected and would like to join the anti Aids fight in a big way.

We are concerned about the pandemic because our work as journalists makes us vulnerable to infection, as we have to move from one place to another in search of news. This high mobility makes us a high- risk group and there is need for us to take action and protect ourselves.

We believe it is up to you, me and everyone to stop the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS before the scourge kills more people, as there is currently no cure.

We hope this is the beginning of a consistent involvement of the Zambian media as part of its promise to stop AIDS, which has caused so much misery and suffering amongst our people.

According to UNAIDS estimates, there are 38.6 million people living with HIV including 2.3 million children.

The latest report estimates that during 2005 some 4.1 million people became newly infected with the virus and the numbers increase in every region every day. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they reach the age of 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35.

All sectors of society including the media is worried about who will be struck next and its time concerted efforts are made to try and reverse the trend.

The media fraternity in Zambia has obviously responded well to highlight the dangers of HIV and AIDS and publicity has been given due prominence in various media outlets.

Newspaper columns like Reflecting on AIDS, with Dr Mannasseh Phiri and ZNBC’s Health Matters are examples of a clear demonstration of the vigorous campaign by the media to put HIV and AIDS high on their agenda.

There are several talk shows about HIV/AIDS on radio and news and feature articles are published regularly, which is also an indication of the consistent campaign and advocacy against the pandemic. But obviously, there is more the media can do to fight the pandemic.

It is for this reason that SAEF Zambia, which constitutes some of the most senior editorial staff in print, electronic media and media education, felt that a new strategy be applied to stop the spread of HIV by introducing new programmes which include work place programmes in the newsroom.

A number of media houses have in recent months been holding meetings with SAEF representatives to come up with sustainable workplace policies in newsrooms.

As gate- keepers in the information chain, we feel our position as editors is strategic in ensuring that anti HIV/ AIDS messages reach out to the intended audiences and we hope we can be engaged all the time by the various stakeholders to halt the spread of the scourge in all sectors including the media industry.

We have pledged to take the war even further, hence this supplement to jumpstart our campaign.

The idea of the supplement came out of discussions within the Media Action Plan (MAP) roll out, which is a process initiated by SAEF to scale up the fight against HIV/AIDS.

SAEF Zambia is now fully registered and this has given us a legal framework to operate from and we hope all those engaged in the AIDS fight will take advantage of our presence, our relevance and strategic position to engage us and halt the pandemic.

We are grateful to Panos Southern Africa for providing us with funding to successfully register the Forum. We are also thankful to the management of Lusaka hotel who have offered us a venue for our meetings free of charge and we hope the government, the cooperate world, the United Nations, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders will also come on board and participate in our activities.

We are concerned about HIV and AIDS because in many countries AIDS is erasing decades of progress made in extending life expectancy. Millions of adults are dying young or in early middle age. Average life expectancy in some African countries like Zambia is now pegged at 47 years, when it could have been 62 without AIDS.

The effect of the epidemic on households is also very severe. Many families are losing their income earners. In other cases, income earners are forced to stay at home to care for relatives who are ill from AIDS.

Many of those dying have surviving partners who are themselves infected and in need of care. They leave behind children grieving and struggling to survive without a parent's care.

The epidemic is putting a strain on the health sector while schools are heavily affected. This is a major concern, because schools can play a vital role in reducing the impact of the epidemic, through education and support.

HIV/AIDS also dramatically affects labour, setting back economic activity and social progress. Employers, schools, factories and hospitals have to train other staff to replace those at the workplace that become too ill to work.

However, there is growing evidence that prevention efforts can be effective, and this includes initiatives in some of the most heavily affected countries like in our own mother Zambia where HIV prevalence rate is at 16 per cent for a population of 11 million.

Effective prevention campaigns have been carried out in Senegal, which is still reflected in the relatively low adult prevalence rate of 0.9%.

The experience of Uganda also shows that a widespread epidemic can be brought under control. HIV prevalence in Uganda fell from around 15% in the early 1990s to around 5% by 2001. This change is thought to be largely due to intensive HIV prevention campaigns.

More recently, similar declines have been seen in Kenya, Zimbabwe and urban areas of Zambia and Burkina Faso. However, the extremely severe epidemics in South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland and Mozambique continue to grow.

There is need, therefore, for a massive expansion in prevention efforts to prevent new infections through various interventions that should include condom use, provision of Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT), Mother To Child Transmission (MTCT) and provision of Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART), male circumcision and a campaign against multiple sexual partners.

All these interventions require support and editors are there to provide the leadership in ensuring that appropriate and correct information and messages are disseminated to the public as a strategy to reverse the pandemic.

As we commemorate the World AIDS Day, let us all remember that you have an ally in us, the Southern African Editors Forum (SAEF).