Inter Press Service - June 20, 2005
Kester Kenn Klomegah

The message is working, health officials say. Russian youths are taking more responsible attitudes towards AIDS after the broadcast of three film clips produced by the Elton John AIDS Foundation, they say.

The clips featuring Elton John himself and England football star David Beckham have been aired on television channels since the summer of 2003. The message itself is simple: to use condoms and other safe sex techniques.

The celebrity route to the message is catching on after the reported success of these clips. The Russian pop group Chai Vdvoem has joined the campaign against AIDS following the Western stars.

The campaign under the slogan 'Life Is Wonderful, When Protected', was launched first as a pilot project by the Russian non-governmental organisation Focus-Media and the international group AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW) that is fighting AIDS in Russia and the former Soviet republics.

A survey by Focus-Media and AFEW indicated that 74 percent were familiar with the campaign. The campaign rolled out on ads on public transport and street billboards as well as posters and leaflets.

The survey showed that women are noticeably more interested in obtaining information about safe sex than men.

"Russia is passing through an AIDS epidemic, and our aim is to stop the spread of the deadly disease among the youth," senior programme adviser with AFEW Tanja Grechukina told IPS. "The practical aim is to get young people interested in music, and also sports fans to learn to act carefully with their partners."

Grechukina believes that the campaign will also help people recognise that the Russian federation has one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics. According to AFEW, there are currently 318,394 people living with HIV/AIDS in Russia. The World Health Organisation puts the figure closer to a million, while unofficial sources say it can be still higher.

The majority of the infected are under 30. Until 2001, the virus was transmitted mainly through infected syringes, but now the number of cases of sexual transmission is growing fast.

"Preventive programmes, and especially information campaigns, can be seen as vaccine against the disease," Grechukina said.

Information coordinator for Focus-Media Oksana Barkalova said the percentage of people using condoms is reported to have risen from 20 percent in 1997 to 45 percent in 2005.

"But there is still much work to be done," Barkalova told IPS. "The use of condoms has yet to become routine among Russian youth, and misconceptions about HIV infection still exist."

Barkalova said a study among young Muscovites showed that a significant proportion still thought condoms necessary only when their partner was known to be infected, and that many thought they were able to judge which people were safe.

Studies showed that 43 percent of the young people thought that AIDS/HIV can be transmitted through saliva. But this overestimation of the risk of contracting HIV through such contact could be influencing more young people to use condoms.

Senior researcher on epidemiology with AFEW Irina Berezhnova said earlier campaigns targeted high-risk groups such as homosexuals, drug users and sex workers. That approach merely stigmatised the disease and distanced average Russians, lulling them into a false sense of security.

"For some there is seemingly reluctance to recognise groups affected by the disease, and that is why we need to provide good quality information," Focus-Media PR manager Yuliya Molodyova told IPS. "We must unite and bring our community together to further fight the disease. There must be enlightenment through the media and I think we'll be reaching the entire population with the message."

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