Involving TV in Fighting TB-associated Stigma

Along with two public service announcements (PSAs), an educational video featuring the life story of a TB patient has been developed and distributed, as were 230,000 copies of various education materials. "We worked as a team with the staff of the National Tuberculosis Control Programme (NTP) and non-state partners while selecting topics for the video materials", said Jamila Azizova, the Project Coordinator. Azizova continues: "While developing the educational video, we used principles of entertainment-education, and tried to deliver important messages on TB detection, the specifics of treatment regimens, the importance of treatment adherence and the acceptance of TB patients in society through an easy to follow life story. We based it on real facts, highlighting the important messages and adding value by the actors' performances."

Editor's note: In addition to the example of one of the 2 PSAs highlighted below, click here for the second one. Click here to watch a related documentary.

Health.

According to the estimates outlined in the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Control Report 2010, there were nearly 10,000 TB patients in Azerbaijan in 2009. AHCA explains that, in Azerbaijan, with its high multi-drug resistant TB figures (22% among new and 56% among re-treatment cases), many people are confused about how TB is spread and why it is important to complete the specific treatment. High stigma and poor awareness of TB compound the situation.

According to Jamila Azizova, the Project Coordinator: "Using the results of the omnibus survey conducted at the beginning of the project, we learnt that despite of being aware of TB as a disease, many people are confused about its symptoms and ways of transmission. We also decided to talk about stigma, because in Azerbaijan if you have TB you hide this from even your closest relatives. Our partners from the NTP told us many stories of how husbands hide their status from wives, preferring to travel to remote TB facilities rather than getting treated near their homes".

"In Azerbaijan, you can rarely see a social spot on TV", said Nurlan Aliyev, the chairman of AHCA. "Working closely with the Ministry of Health and USAID [the United States Agency for International Development], we managed to receive free air time on three national and seven regional channels, broadcasting to the nearly 9 million people of Azerbaijan. During November and December 2010 there were more than 150 showings of the PSAs on three national TV channels, and nearly 800 showings on seven regional channels"