Journalists leading in the fight against AIDS

Despite being the ones disseminating HIV and AIDS information through various media outlets, journalists are not immune to the pandemic.

From observations, they may even be at high risk of contracting the virus due to the nature of their job.

It is no longer a secret that there is a tendency among journalists in many countries that when they go out of their duty stations for a workshop or to gather information, they forget their spouses.

Some are in the tendency of having a one night stand with fellow journalists while others prefer to have prostitutes of that particular area.

Yet when they go back home, they pretend to their spouses as if nothing happened.

It is so pathetic to note that sometimes they misbehave like that after attending an HIV/AIDS awareness session at a seminar.

However, others may be infected through means other than careless behaviours.

Others were raped, infected by a spouse or other accidental exposures to the HIV virus.

Considering that even though they may have more knowledge about the pandemic, they are just like anybody else and may catch the virus and develop AIDS, a group of journalists living with HIV and AIDS who gathered in Zambia last June agreed to form networks for journalists living with HIV/AIDS in all countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region to supplement government`s national response programmes in their respective countries.

Malawi was one of the countries represented at the conference and it has just launched its organization called Network of Malawi Journalists Living with HIV and AIDS (MJLWHA).

According to MJLWHA national coordinator, David Kamkwamba, the birth of the network is an initiative aimed at promoting effective participation of journalists living with HIV and AIDS.

``Specifically it aims at advocating for rights of people living with HIV and AIDS which include journalists and those affected like orphans and vulnerable children,`` says Kamkwamba in a press statement.

The statement points out that the initiative would also yoke the power of media through experiences of journalists living with the virus.

``In this drive the initiative shall advocate for mainstreaming of HIV and AIDS by advocating for workplace policy development, implementation and strategies against stigma at different levels. The network hopes to maximize on the support of local and international stakeholders and partners in media work,`` reads the statement in part.

Even though many companies and other government departments have recently launched HIV/AIDS workplace programs, many media houses do not have such programmes.

Among others, Ministry of Information and Civic Education which is the mother of Malawi News Agency (MANA), Weekly News newspaper, Bomalathu (a Chichewa language) newspaper and This is Malawi magazine has a policy which supports HIV positive patients.

It gives supplementary nutritious food stuffs to its employees who declared their status and this is done confidentially.

But even though there is this provision, it seems many people still do not want to declare their HIV status to their employers.

This is the case because despite massive information dissemination about the pandemic, discrimination is still common.

Very few people make their status known to the society as well as to their family members and very few support groups/organizations work openly.

Malawi is one of the developing countries highly hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Malawi National Aids Commission (NAC) 2007 statistics indicate that there are 1 million HIV positive people in the country, making a prevalence rate of 15 per cent.

According to AVERT international charity website, Aids is the leading cause of death among adults in Malawi and is the major factor in the country`s low life expectancy which is now 43 years.

The pandemic has caused over 650, 000 deaths and continues to kill around ten productive citizens every hour.

HIV/AIDS has affected many other public officers apart from journalists.

In 2000, the then speaker of parliament, Sam Mpasu disclosed that 28 parliamentarians had died of AIDS in just four years.

Recently Secretary for Nutrition and HIV/AIDS, Dr Mary Shaba lately told the media that Malawi government loses an average of K200, 000 (about $1,429) on each funeral in the country through loss of productive hours, transport costs and food.

``We have also discovered that government spends about K60, 000 (about $428) each year on a person to get Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and it spends K120, 000 (about $858 to keep a person at the hospital.

To treat opportunistic infections, government spends K120, 000 a year, per person.

Dr Shawa says according to the study that reveals this, as a direct result of the HIV/AIDS deaths, government has lost about 20 years of development.

The first HIV case in Malawi was reported in 1985 when Malawi was under Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda`s regime.

After the first case was reported, his government established a short term AIDS strategy which included blood screening and HIV education programmes.

In 1988, National Aids Control Programme (NACP) was created to coordinate the country`s AIDS education and HIV prevention efforts.

Even though these efforts were in place, Dr Banda`s puritanical beliefs made it very difficult for AIDS education and prevention schemes to be carried out since public discussions of sexual matters were generally banned or censored and HIV and AIDS were considered taboo subjects.

The Malawi society opened up to discuss HIV matters and other risky behaviours when it became a democratic nation in 1993.

The establishment of MJLWHA is a milestone that HIV prevention and information sharing is going on well in the country and other key professionals such as parliamentarians and other leaders should do the same since people count on them for such information.

If prominent people are to declare their HIV status, their subjects would be encouraged to do likewise.

The organisation`s press release says the primary mobilisation process and growth would be openness through membership to the network saying membership is open to all practicing journalists living with HIV in print and electronic media.

In Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Union of journalists (ZUJ) representing journalists in the country recently launched a programme to provide life prolonging ARV drugs to its HIV positive members.

Media reports indicate that the drugs would be free to union members and their immediate families.

Chamayuka Bosha, ZUJ national Coordinator says journalism is a poorly paid profession in Zimbabwe with some practitioners earning as little as US $5 per month saying: ``A month`s supply of ARV drugs costs about $50 which would make ARV therapy beyond reach of our community.

If journalists across the continent are to follow this new fashion, HIV and AIDS messages through testimony and experiences would be more fruitful.