The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Changed publicity tack on AIDS gets a positive response

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 20, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Changed publicity tack on AIDS gets a positive response

M. Dinesh Varma

Overkill dropped in favour of simplifying the core message

CHENNAI : Worried over the indifferent public response to its multimedia HIV/AIDS campaign, the Chennai Corporation AIDS Prevention and Control Society (CAPACS) changed its publicity tack to catch public attention.

The public response to the revised approach sending out the positive message of "Kavalai paranthathu makizhchi piranthathu" has exceeded expectations. To capitalise on the spark of public interest, the campaign based on a thematic mode launched on World AIDS Day, December, will be run for another two months.

"We chose to simplify our core message instead of the regular overkill," said Dharani Singh, Deputy Director (IEC), CAPACS.

CAPACS is now in the process of preparing a detailed strategy-response report for its telecounselling and Voluntary Confidential Counselling and Testing Centre (VCTC) services.

In barely over a month, the number of callers to CAPAC's toll free 1097 hotline has shot up from four to six calls a day to over 100 a day. To put the response in better perspective, officials pointed out that while in six months there were only between 250 to 300 callers a month, the number of diallers has crossed 2,500 in just over a month since the revised strategy.

Telecounselling console

At the telecounselling console, post-graduate student volunteers and Medical Social Workers manning the round-the-clock service are on their toes as they field a wide range of questions.

A majority of callers are housewives and college students. In fact, many women callers have sought guidance on the role they should play in promoting HIV/AIDS awareness. The majority of callers were in the 22-35 age group.

Women are a focus group in awareness campaigns as they are at higher risk of infection compared to men. It is estimated that for very two men five women get infected.

Mr. Singh points out that the toll free service has begun complementing the Voluntary Confidential Counselling and Testing Centres (VCTCs) in the city. Callers have been making enquiries about VCTCs, which the official expects, would translate into visits to any one of the 25 centres in Chennai.

The AIDS scene in Chennai, as reflective of the rest of Tamil Nadu, has remained static. This, in itself, is seen by officials as a positive. According to the latest sentinel surveillance figures, the number of AIDS cases in Tamil Nadu is 52,000 of which Chennai accounts for 10,000 patients. The number of AIDS patients in India is around 1.12 lakhs.

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