Jamaica launches ad campaign against discrimination of HIV-positive people

Download PDF Copy

Sep 20 2006

Jamaica has launched an advertising campaign that aims to curb HIV/AIDS-related stigma, the Caribbean Media Corporation reports.

The campaign, called "Getting on With Life," plans to include radio, television, newspaper and billboard messages that denounce discrimination related to the disease.

In addition, two HIV-positive Jamaicans will speak publicly about their experiences living with the virus, according to Peter Figueroa, chief of epidemiology and AIDS for Jamaica's Ministry of Health.

The campaign will be funded in part by grants from the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

More than 25,000 of the country's 2.7 million residents are estimated to be living with HIV, including about 15,000 who are not aware that they are HIV-positive, according to the Caribbean Media Corporation.

The National HIV/AIDS Control Program is providing antiretroviral treatment to about 2,000 HIV-positive people in Jamaica (Caribbean Media Corporation, 9/15).

This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.