Public sympathy and good marketing determine the health stories the media
chooses to report on.
Sympathy is
also a determining factor in big business’ corporate social responsibility
health projects.
I find this
approach to health matters by the corporate sector and media very narrow.
It is a great
injustice, especially to thousands of people, who depend on the media for
information and corporations for cash injections.
Remember that,
to ordinary members of the public, if something is not reported by the
media, it’s not important.
The medical
sector depends on the media to spread the message that prevention is important.
But the media can’t do justice to this initiative if it is guided by
sympathy and good marketing.
One is happy
with the attention given to HIV/Aids. It is a human catastrophe. But there
are other diseases.
Lifestyle diseases
such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity are on the increase. We are
witnessing an epidemic of childhood obesity.
These are the
result of urbanisation, Westernised diets and a sedentary lifestyle. We
want to see more messages encouraging active lifestyles and healthy eating.
How many men
in Diepsloot and Qunu , over the age of 40, have even heard about prostate
cancer, let alone about its prevention?
It would be
negligent to ignore the socioeconomic implications of chronic diseases
of lifestyle.
It is critical
for the print and electronic media to highlight and educate the public.
The media needs
to get specialist health reporters and writers whose duty it should be
to hunt for these stories.
As a start,
read the MRC health reports on the causes of mortality and morbidity in
this country.
Corporate social
responsibility should not be driven by sympathy, but by the health priorities
of a particular community.
I do want to
hear about HIV/Aids — but not to the exclusion of other health challenges.
As the former
president of Nigeria, Olegun Obasanjo, once said: “We cannot afford to
say we must first tackle other diseases first —HIV/Aids, malaria, tuberculosis
… then we will deal with chronic diseases. If we wait even 10 years,
we will find that the problem is even larger and more expensive to address.”
— Dr Lucas Ntyintyane, by e-mail
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