Public Service Announcement on HIV/AIDS and TB - Global

This public service announcement (PSA) uses a particular person's story to share information and encourage health-seeking behaviour. The spot begins by flashing the words "Winstone Zulu is alive". Zulu, an HIV-positive African man, then indicates that the closest he has ever come to dying was when he contracted TB. A narrator provides facts and statistics about the linkage between HIV/AIDS and TB, indicating that treatment for TB is available (but only 1 in 3 people who need it, get it). The PSA urges that viewers who are HIV-positive and have TB symptoms to talk to health workers about Directly Observed Treatment, Short (DOTS) therapy. The narrator stresses that this treatment is available for less than US$10; at this point in the PSA, Zulu is pictured holding a single monetary bill. The PSA closes with the words, "Fight AIDS. Fight TB. Fight Now".

The spot was produced in collaboration with UNAIDS and distributed to TV stations in 16 African countries and the United Kingdom through the UNAIDS Media Network.

Online efforts are part of a strategy to reach a global audience. The video can be viwed online by clicking here. Viewers may also access the Stop TB Working Group on TB/HIV website, which offers links to resources related to HIV/AIDS and TB.

HIV/AIDS, Health (TB).

Organisers say that almost 30% of people with HIV are also infected with TB. TB is the most common opportunistic infection among people with HIV and is a leading cause of death among people who are HIV positive. They claim that TB and HIV impact economic development and pose new challenges to health and social systems, which increasingly have to address issues such as integrating HIV and TB services, facilitating access to drugs and treatment, and caring for infected people.