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December 12, 2003

Couch potatos rejoice - for sitting around watching TV is good for your health! So say the World Health Organisation, who told us "Soap operas, community radio programmes and entertainment TV have the power to mobilize people to take control of their health, both in terms of prevention and treatment."

Ary Rogerio Silva from Americas for World Health. added that "in 1985 when a famous actor used a wig on a very popular soap opera - the wig market saw a rise of 70 per cent that year."

Although this sounds frivilous, media, entertainment and ICTs can improve health.Unsurprisingly the AIDS epidemic was also high on the agenda. Advances had been made, said Mr Taiwo Allimi, Director General of Voice of Nigeria because every television and radio station in his country now has a health correspondant.
But he stressed that traditional methods of communication such as village meetings and town criers still needed to be used for an integrated communication approach.

Mr Allimi also said that the language used is very important as many villages don't know the disease as AIDS or HIV, but "blood eater".

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