A.I.D.S. for soap opera character?

Press, 21 February 1987, Page 33

A.I.D.S. for soap opera character?

By

HUGH BARLOW

NZPA staff correspondent London A health charity wants a soap opera character to contract A.I.D.S. to bring home to millions of 1 viewers the dangers of the

disease. The demand came just hours before the Health Minister, Mr Norman Fowler, said deaths in Britain from A.I.D.S. had reached 355 by the end of January and the number of cases had risen a record 76 to 686 during the month. The Health Information Trust said the Government’s A.I.D.S. campaign

on television was being counteracted by soap operas which suggested the “delights of promiscu-

ous sex?’ “A.I.D.S. advertisements asking people to keep to

one partner are followed by the next episode of ‘Eastenders,’ ‘Dallas,’ or ‘Dynasty,’ in which characters do not seem to pay much attention to what the Department of Health has just said,” the trust said.

Television campaigns were unlikely to have much influence on people whose lifestyle put them at risk of catching A.I.D.S. A sustained seat belt campaign in the 1970 s did little good and asking some people to stay with one partner or to use condoms was far more radical than asking them to wear a seat belt.

Personal recommendation from “opinion leaders,” whether actors, doctors, nurses or teachers, was overwhelmingly important, the trust said.