The media has been urged to increase coverage on how HIV and AIDS is affecting sports personalities’ health and wellbeing.
National AIDS Council (NAC) chief executive officer, Bernard Madzima during an HIV/AIDS workshop for sports journalists in Chinhoyi Wednesday said there is a lot of information about HIV and the response in the public arena, the challenge of access to accurate facts and figures and their interpretation still exists due to limited coverage of HIV within the sports sector as the emphasis seems to be on their celebrity lifestyles than their health and wellness.
“Without the relevant attention to HIV and general health risks including Covid-19 that affect sports personalities, we would seem like a nation that enjoys the fruits and ignores the fruit trees,” said Madzima.
Madzima added that they have decided to target sports journalists since they have noted that there is little coverage of HIV issues that relate to sports, yet sports personalities are usually at risk given the publicity and popularity that they are given by the media.
NAC’s regularly engages the media to cultivate increased coverage of HIV and related issues including non-communicable diseases, which are becoming prevalent among our people.
In addition to such workshops, the NAC regularly conducts media tours for both editors and reporters to expose them to the response to HIV in action in various communities, which they would otherwise miss in their general day to day work.
It also runs annual media awards as a strategy to promote consistent and factual coverage of the HIV beat.
