Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-12-Speech-3-331"
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"en.20071212.30.3-331"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ‘Yours for ever, AIDS’ were the words I read on a poster for World AIDS Day, which took place almost two weeks ago. The message was that AIDS is treatable but not curable. Many people, especially younger people, lose sight of that or choose to ignore it. The infection rates, to which previous speakers have referred, speak for themselves. Education is the only way to prevent HIV and AIDS, and I am pleased that the Commission subscribes to that view.
Education, however, must not be confined to poster campaigns or visits to schools by government ministers. These things attract brief attention and may catch the eye of the media too, but they do not modify behaviour patterns, especially among young people.
AIDS and HIV were once the stuff of real-life horror stories in the press. Many people felt insecure and afraid because nobody knew how dangerous the virus really was. I have no wish to return to those days, but with the existence of HIV/AIDS having become a fact of life and treatments having become safer, the problem no longer automatically captures the same level of public attention today.
Many people have become accustomed to these messages, and some are even tired of hearing and seeing them. That is irrational, but it is a fact. Education must be adapted to take account of these changed circumstances. Education must be designed to reach out and capture people’s attention, to address tailored messages to specific target groups in their own vernacular. There are young people out there who misinterpret HIV as a negligible risk, and it is particularly important that we engage with them on their own cognitive ground and prompt them to think about the consequences of infection.
Many people still do think about the consequences, but unfortunately they start too late, namely when a doctor or social worker tells them they have tested positive. Then the disease, which has hitherto been a dim and distant concept, suddenly becomes very real. Only if we manage to make people think about HIV before it is too late shall we have made any progress.
Patient long-term efforts will be needed to achieve that goal. There must be facilities, services and projects designed for target groups – the more differentiated and the closer to personal experience they are, the better they will be. The organised AIDS charities, such as the
associations in Germany, can continue to play an important role here if they rise to this new challenge. That, unfortunately, is not happening everywhere.
Those who are HIV-positive today have a good chance of a long life, in western Europe at least. In other parts of the world, such as Africa, it is a different matter. This comfortable situation of ours, however, should not breed complacency."@en1
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"AIDS-Hilfe"1
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