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LEÓN HERNÁNDEZ

lhernandez1@elnuevoherald.com

Research carried out with publications collected at the end of 2016 by the Colombian Diego More, journalist specialized in Human Rights, shows that social communicators of the media in Latin America use inappropriate language when talking about the virus of human immunodeficiency (HIV) and aids.

In the media of Latin American Spanish-speaking countries they still continue to confuse HIV with AIDS, regardless the efforts from several organizations to decrease stigma and discrimination caused by the confusion of these and other terms.  The study named  HIV in the media,  consists of an analysis of the news published in approximately 121 media outlets in Latin America, between October 1st. 2016 and November 30th. the same year.

In 2015, the United Nations highlighted among many other recommendations, that the expression ¨infected by aids¨, should not be used, as aids ¨is defined as a syndrome of opportunistic infections and diseases that may develop when immunodepresion is exacerbated and the continuous process is triggered by the infection due to HIV¨.  In addition, the organization stated that given that aids is a clinical syndrome, the expression ¨aids virus¨ is incorrect.  These are some of the mistakes that are still being made in the Latin American press, says the expert.

More than  2,100 media notes of 19 Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America were thoroughly reviewed to find the language that they are using when they refer to the terms HIV and aids.

“This research aims at getting clear evidence on how the media in Latin America, especially all the media and their on-line publications, are writing on the topic of the human immunodeficiency virus.  When the media uses inappropriate language to refer to HIV, this promotes more stigma and discrimination to people who live with the virus¨, said Mora.

WHEN THE MEDIA USE INAPPROPIATE LANGUAGE TO REFER TO HIV, THIS PROMOTES MORE STIGMA TO PEOPLE WHO LIVE WITH THE VIRUS

Diego Mora, Human Rights expert. 

“The main conclusion that we have so far with this analysis of more than 4,000 references to HIV, is that journalists use the word ¨disease to refer to HIV, when it is a virus, not a disease.  This word can be seen in 29 percent of news in Latin America¨, said More in an interview with the Nuevo Herald.

Words that stigmatize

An example of the frequent inappropriate language in Latin America media is the use of the word ¨contagion¨.  ¨This word  has a very strong social value, because then the stigma that people have about it arises:  ¨I cannot touch a person with HIV, I cannot share a spoon with a person with HIV´, when this is really not true.  The adequate word to talk about the virus transmission is precisely that, ¨HIV transmission¨, he said.

Another inappropriate word is to refer to the person who lives with HIV as ´carrier´.  ¨HIV is not carried, you live with HIV, people learn how to live with it and obviously when we consider him/her as a ´carrier´, it is not about me leaving the HIV at home and going to work, come back and pick it up.  In addition, the term implies a strong social weight  by pointing that ´you are a carrier´, ´you have the infection´, when actually  it is a much more global and social reality, which should be accompanied by people to avoid discrimination¨.

Juan Pablo Rodríguez Vásquez is a 28 years old young man, who has lived with HIV since 2010.  He is a health worker, a nurse, of Costa Rican origin.  He lives in Vancouver, Canada, to continue his career as a nurse. Just as the study carried out by Mora states, HIV in the media, Rodriguez Vasquez has also perceived the mismanagement of the terms.

“For instance, the word aids is still shown in capital letters in the media.  Then, it keeps making people alert, calling their attention to be very careful with ´AIDS´, but not to promote health, therefore  building rejection to people¨ said Rodiguez to the New Herald.

THE WORD AIDS IS STILL SHOWN IN CAPITAL LETTERS IN THE MEDIA.  IT STILL CONTINUES TO CREATE IN PEOPLE THE WARNING THAT THEY ARE VERY CAREFUL WITH AIDS, BUT NOT TO PROMOTE HEALTH

Juan Pablo Rodríguez Vásquez, Costa Rican nurse who lives with HIV 

Rodríguez is also an activist, and he says that has allowed him to have more strength facing the discrimination in the media.  ¨Maybe I have not been affected personally. But many people who are not activists,  cannot tell what is happening to them at work, at home, with their friends, because they know that the media has not done anything in favor of people living with HIV and that at the end, if they talk about their condition, they will be stigmatized, separated and away from other people¨.

Countries that use it worst

The analysis showed differences in the information treatment among Spanish-speaking Latin American countries.  ¨Honduras is of great concern, whose media does not have a proper way to refer to HIV, and it is the country in Latin America that has the highest level of using inappropriate messages about it in the media¨, said Mora.

“Around 45 percent of the information conveyed through the media in Honduras that refers to HIV uses inappropriate language.  Following are Chile, Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia. It is concerning that such large countries as Mexico, Chile and  Colombia have the highest use of inappropriate language when they talk about this subject¨, said Mora, who is in the United States as part of the program  Next Generation Leaders of the McCain Institute of Arizona University.

On the other hand, the study also found good practices, although much less than failures in language use.  ¨We can speak about countries as Paraguay, Caribbean countries such as Dominican Republic, Cuba and somehow Peru, that are close to the appropriate use of language on the subject.  When we say appropriate use, we mean that they use terms that refer to HIV that agree with the terminology not to encourage stigma and discrimination, such as the expression ¨people who live with HIV¨.

Mora has a project to create a style manual in order to contribute with the Latin American media in the appropriate use of language when referring to HIV.

“Another conclusion that we have is that a lot of information published on HIV does not talk about the virus.  Much of this information talks about other topics and mentions HIV only to include it in the text.  For instance, many of this news have a famous person as a protagonist: ¨Sharapova will play a game in favor of Elton John Foundation against HIV´¨, or ´Ricky Martin attended an HIV gala´.  In this way, HIV is trivialized, it loses importance for the media´, said the journalist.

Follow  Leon Hernandez in  Twitter: @El_Leon