Communication and education as vaccine against the spread of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in Africa.
Soola Eo · PubMed · 1991
Attention is focused on the segmentation of the audience (urban, rural, urban slum) and messages, and on how appropriate communication and educational strategies can be adopted to create awareness of AIDS among the African population. It is important to determine the scope, nature, and content of the message in addition to the delivery of these messages through proper channels. Channels of communication vary in reach and influence, and different segments of the population vary in the capacity to absorb information. Rural people are considered susceptible because of their penchant for continually using injections for treatment of any ailment; the source of concern is unsterilized needles and syringes. The semantics of AIDs is discussed to emphasize the problem of how to identify AIDs among the multiplicity of languages in individual countries. For instance, in Nigeria there may be 150-400 languages, and these languages lack systematically developed metalanguage and specialized vocabularies. The view that local language use must be one way, linear is accepted, and the difficulties surmounted. Local languages may be used to transmit information of a nontechnical nature. The literate minority should have access to detailed information on causes, modes of transmission, symptoms, treatment or management, but not everyone needs this extent of detail. The rural and urban residents should know about the incurability of the disease, the mode of transmission, its symptoms, and what should be done if someone is suspected of having an HIV infection. Already the Hausa of Nigeria have a term for AIDs, Karya-Garkuwa, which suggests a disease that breaks down the mechanism of the biological functioning of the body. Communicators must be knowledgeable and able to effectively transmit facts not myths. Of the 3 modes of transmission (sex, blood, mother to child), sexual transmission is the most important. Blood routes are through transfusions, contaminated blood products for hemophilia patients, contaminated needles and syringes of intravenous drug users, unsterilized needles and syringes used for medical treatment, knives for circumcision or body marking, razor blades in barber shops, and toothbrushes. All media should be used as well as community based informal and political channels. Traditional communication modes in rural areas are required. A multidisciplinary team of experts in modern and traditional media and instructional communication design and operation is needed.