Football fans get HIV tests after South Africa FIFA World Cup
South Africa has a serious HIV and AIDS problem. With a huge number of the population with suffering from the disease, a new campaign has started which will target fans that went to the 2010 World Cup recently held in the country to get tested for HIV. A hospital in England is pushing for fans to get tested if they had unprotected s*x while they were in South Africa enjoying the football. This issue highlights a very interesting aspect of football, the fact that campaigns can be done to target fans of the game specifically, and, then spread the message to a wider audience.
South Africa has a major epidemic in terms of HIV sufferers living in the country at the moment. About 5.7 million people were living with HIV in the country in 2009. South Africa has the highest number of people living with the disease in the world. Almost one in three women who are between the ages of 25-29, and, a quarter of young men between the ages of 30-34 are currently living with the disease. The problem with these figures and, why this is worrying so many people is that many young people of the ages of 20-30 went to South Africa to watch the World Cup this year. There is a high chance that some young men would have had unprotected s*x with one of the women in the above age bracket and some young women would have also done the same with a man in that age bracket as well.
Birmingham’s Heartlands Hospital did some research recently and found that more than two thirds of heterosexual men and almost a quarter of women contract HIV through having unprotected s*x while on vacation. With almost 25,000 England fans having recently returned from South Africa, the hospital has started to get worried. They have launched a nationwide campaign backed by several agencies to tell young people to get tested. The campaign is called Beer Goggle Johnny's Guide to Sexual Health and is meant to target those young fans that may have put themselves at risk while in Africa.
South Africa itself was looking to try and use the leverage from the World Cup to raise awareness about their huge HIV problem. A campaign is being run by the South African Football Players Union and it is targeting young people to give footballers their numbers so they can receive information about getting tested and test sites are being set up all over the country, especially in townships. As the problem of HIV is extremely widespread in townships and other poverty stricken areas of the country, football is being used as a vehicle for change. Football has a fanatical following in townships and this is being used to get the message out to youngsters to offer advice, counselling and testing. There can be a lot of misconceptions about the disease and a lot of people are afraid of getting tested and so this campaign will help to solve that problem and get more help to those that need it the most.
The excitement of watching football matches and alcohol that was consumed in bars and clubs in South Africa prompted many people to go off and have casual unprotected s*x with people they met. Testing campaigns in the country besides using footballers to spread the message is targeting bars, clubs and the workplace. A campaign that was launched during the World Cup took testing facilities to the places where the fans were, instead of waiting for the fans to come to them. Testing facilities were taken to bars, clubs and other venues where football matches were being shown. The results were very positive because the campaign led to many young men and women getting tested for the disease and then following up with counselling and retesting if necessary. This method of bringing the testing facilities to the fans was a brilliant way of achieving the goal of testing because it is not very popular to begin with.
Hopefully of those 25,000 England fans and the millions more who visited South Africa during the World Cup, not too many of them have contracted the disease. With testing and counselling for those that came back and the ones that are living in South Africa, the problem can be taken care of and the spread of this dangerous and life threatening disease can be stopped.
Tags: