JAAIDS Media Monitoring Service November 2006.

April 5, 2007 :: O'Femi Kolawole,Lagos Journalists Against AIDS(JAAIDS)Nigeria

How Herbs can alleviate AIDS symptoms

Though scientists are still working hard at getting a
cure for HIV/AIDS, some traditional medicines have
shown to be capable of helping to treat many AIDS-related
opportunistic infections. But not many people know this or
believe it.

That’s why ‘How herbs can alleviate AIDS symptoms, by
WHO’, a two-page feature report in the Natural Health
section of Guardian on November 30, attracts attention
because of its focus-using herbal medicine in managing
HIV and AIDS.

In the report, a number of herbs were listed out from
a publication- Living well with HIV/AIDS: A manual on
nutritional care and support for people living with
HIV/AIDS which was published by the Food and
Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the World Health
Organisation (WHO).

The use of these herbs and their preparation including
the side effects were also explained in the report.
Some of the herbs highlighted include Garlic, Ginger,
Lemon, Neem (Dogonyaro), Aloe, Mint, Thyme and
Cinnamon. These herbs, as emphasized by the story have
antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal functions among
others and help in soothing indigestion, throat
infection, herpes and diarrhea as well as nausea
relieve.

A good point about the story is that it is
refreshingly different from other articles in the
month. Moreover, it is written in such a simple style
that a PLWH can easily follow it in treating
opportunistic infections. 

Unfortunately, not one individual, be he an AIDS
treatment expert, nor a person living with HIV or an
herbal medicine practitioner in Nigeria who knows
about herbal treatment options for opportunistic
infections associated with HIV/AIDS, was interviewed
in the story. In essence, while the story is locally
relevant since it addressed an issue which would also
interest Nigerians, there was no effort by the
reporter to localize the report, through getting a
‘Nigerian’ input into the story. Going such extra mile
could certainly have added more weight to the story.

With new brands of condoms coming into the market,
Tribune, went to town with a question: Are African men
using condoms?”  The vox pop which attracted different
types of responses was published on page 43 of the
November 17 edition.

While some of the respondents feel condom reduces the
sexual pleasure they get with their partners during
intercourse, others believe it has helped to prevent
the spread of HIV. There were respondents who vowed to
continue using condoms to protect themselves from
infection having lost relatives to AIDS.

For some, their decision is to avoid using condoms by
remaining faithful and having ‘skin-to-skin’ sex with
their spouses alone. But none of the respondents
doubted the condom’s effectiveness in reducing the
risk of contracting a sexually transmitted infection
especially HIV/AIDS if used properly.

The vox pop, at least, reconfirms some things already
known especially to those involved in HIV/AIDS
advocacy. That left to most men, they would prefer to
have sex without condom or any form of barrier.
However, due to the growing reality of HIV and AIDS,
most men believe that it is necessary for them to
protect themselves and their partners by using condoms
especially if they have sex with those who are not
their regular partners.

Simply put, Tribune’s effort helps to proof that
advocacy campaigns on condom use could be said to be
succeeding. It was a good effort from the Ibadan-based
newspaper especially with the fact that well drafted
vox pops always interest many readers.

It’s clear that civil society organizations
continuously need to build the capacities of
journalists to understand issues related to HIV and
AIDS be it the simple prevention methods to more
complex issues as HIV treatment and policies.

This is because despite the federal government’s
announcement in 2006 that it plans to have 250, 000
people receiving treatment on its ARV programme which
is yet to be achieved, it is surprising that a
reporter would be writing that 700, 000 Nigerians
living with HIV are already on antiretroviral
treatment. This was reported in a news story titled’
Forum counsels employers on HIV employee’ published on
page 45 of the Guardian, November 7 edition.

Although the figure was given by an official quoted in
the story, the reporter could have reconfirmed such
statistics. Even figures from the National Action
Committee on AIDS (NACA) show that the 250,
000-people-on-treatment target is yet to be achieved.
Therefore, before stories are passed for publication,
it is advisable for sub/copy editors to also cross
check such figures before going to press. Doing this
would help avoid such kind of embarrassment on their
organization in future.

Other outstanding stories in the month include ‘TB
Treatment: Adopting DOTS Strategy, New Age November
9’; ‘HIV Positive people and the Cross of Stigma, The
Tribune, November 11; and ‘Nigerian Soldiers’ Wives
suffer AIDS from husbands’ sexual escapades in Liberia
and Sierra Leone’ which was published in The Sun on
November 26. 

But a common story in the papers reviewed was the
pre-event publicity given to the MTN Lagos
International Half Marathon which held on December 2
in Lagos. The theme of the marathon was ‘Move Ahead…
Run Against AIDS.’ All the papers monitored had one or
two stories on the marathon.

Interestingly, a ‘good thing on HIV/AIDS’ seemingly
came out from the soft-sell magazines in November with
Encomium’s ‘AIDS is real and wiping out the nation’ on
page A8 of its November 14 edition. The piece stressed
the need for all Nigerians, especially doubting
Thomases to become aware that AIDS is real, it is
closer to them than they think and therefore important
to protect themselves from getting infected. It was
commendable bearing in mind that the soft sell
publications especially in the previous months, have
often taken delight in publishing frivolous stories
like ‘How an Abuja Big Boy infected three Edo babes
with HIV’ among others.

In the same vein, ‘Let’s Talk’, a column by Rolake
Nwagwu in Glitterati  and published by THIS DAY every
Sunday, also deserve commendation, not necessarily
because of the issues addressed but the finesse of the
columnist in using personnel experiences as a person
openly  living with HIV to communicate issues relating
to HIV/AIDS to a general audience.

A total of 282 stories were published by all the 16
publications monitored in the month. Of these, 204
were news stories, 35 were features, 29 were opinion
articles and six were interviews. Cartoons and adverts
on AIDS were 5 while 3 editorials were published in
the month by New Age, The Sun and This Day.

The Sun published its editorial ‘Our dismal AIDS
statistics’ on November 1 with This Day’s ‘An
Embarassing AIDS Record’ on the same day. New Age’s
Editorial titled ‘WHO diabetes alert’ was published on
November 15.

Both The Sun and This Day raised concerns about
Nigeria’s unenviable third position after India and
South Africa among the countries with the highest
number of people living with HIV despite efforts at
confronting the epidemic in the country.

The editorials were obviously prompted by a media
briefing by the country director of the United Nations
Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) during the preceding
week in Abuja where UN experts lamented the AIDS
statistics in Nigeria.

But This Day made an error in the second to the last
paragraph of the editorial which editors of the paper
must avoid in future. The paper wrote that “Michael
Jordan, the popular American basket-baller who tested
positive to AIDS many years ago, is still living a
healthy life today, thanks to good diet and proper
medication.” 

Of course, it is true that a famous American
basket-baller tested HIV positive some years back and
is alive today. However, it was Magic Johnson who
tested positive sixteen years ago in November 1991 and
not Michael Jordan as was stated in the editorial.

But the newspaper deserves commendation anywa since it published the highest number of stories in the month with 34 reports. It was followed by the Guardian, The Sun and The Nation with 29 reports each. Business Day had just 8 in the month.

Generally, many of the reports in the month had
headlines which issues could not be raised with in
terms of appropriate use of language in HIV and AIDS
reporting except for ‘Provide improved medical care
for AIDS victims’ published by Daily Trust on November
22, and Vanguard’s piece on November 30 titled ‘Enugu
plans to support HIV/AIDS orphans’. The short acronym
for people living with HIV (PLWH) could have been used
instead of ‘AIDS victims while HIVAIDS orphans is also
stigmatizing and should be avoided.

However, none of the papers monitored found any story
on HIV/AIDS worthy of being put on the front or back
cover pages in the month.

Newspaper Monitored include: Business Day, Champion,
Daily Trust, Guardian, New Age, National Mirror,
Punch, The Sun, This Day, Tribune, Vanguard

Magazines monitored include: City People, Encomium,
Insider, Tell, The News.