Ref; Edward C Green's posting Low Rate of AIDS Virus in Philippines Is a Puzzle
" A good topic to get us started might be the recent NY Times article about low
HIV prevalence in the Philippines. Question: Is prevalence likely to remain "low
and slow," or will there be an "explosion?" And how to explain low HIV prev.
rates among MSM, FSW and IDU in the Philippines?
Edward C Green, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
9 Bow Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, E-mail: EGreendc@...
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Hello Mr. Green,

Read through the article. I have conducted some research on the prevalence of
AIDS in India and the role of mass media in its prevention and control. The
reasons for low rate in Phillipines could be that many cases go unreported and
are not a part of any statistics. In countries like ours, where literacy levels
are not so high, this is one main problem. This leads to silent spread of the
epidemic, shrouded in ignorance and secrecy. Our messages are not designed
keeping in mind a sustained long term effort, they are designed more on the
basis of popular perceptions rather than solid message research. In india ,
advertising condoms as an AIDS prevention method has become so common that in my
study i found that adolescents knew about the use of condoms as AIDS prevention
method but they did not know its use as a contraceptive! What is the use of such
communication which leads to misinformation?

Dr. Archana Rakesh Singh
Lecturer,dept of Mass Communication,Panjab university, Chandigarh India
E-mail: archishukla@...
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