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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 10, 2002
HIV/AIDS Resource Center Opens in Ethiopia to Provide
Essential Information on Prevention, Care and Support
CDC-Funded Center Allows Access to Latest Resources, Services ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—A new resource center providing up-to-date and accurate information on HIV/AIDS opened today in the capital city of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, where 7.3 percent of adults are already infected with HIV.
The AIDS Resource Center is the result of a partnership of Ethiopia's HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (CCP), Analytical Sciences Inc., and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The center will serve as Ethiopia's premier source of information on the epidemic that is sweeping through the nation of 67 million.
“Having access to accurate and current information is key to halting the spread of this virus,” said Dr. Tadesse Wuhib, CDC Director in Ethiopia. “Young people and adults need to be educated and informed about HIV/AIDS so they can protect themselves and care for those who are infected or affected.”
The AIDS Resource Center will serve as a hub for a host of resources and services, such as a comprehensive multimedia reference collection, high-speed computer terminals with Internet access, audiovisual equipment, and databases of local and international HIV/AIDS organizations and funding opportunities. With local HIV/AIDS stakeholders, the center plans to develop behavior change communication materials on prevention, voluntary counseling and testing, and living positively with HIV/AIDS.
The center will also reach out to Ethiopian journalists to ensure that news coverage of the epidemic is sensitive and based on factual information to help dispel myths and reduce stigma. “Our knowledge about HIV/AIDS changes daily,” said Ato Negatu Mereke, Head of Ethiopia's HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office. “Providing access to the latest information will guide our efforts to prevent the spread and mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS.”
The new resource center is free to users affiliated with any government agency, media organization or non-governmental organization working in HIV/AIDS issues, as well as the general public.
Once the AIDS Resource Center is fully operational, center partners are considering expanding to other regional sites that will be networked through the main resource center in Addis Ababa. There are also plans for an expanded audiovisual unit, additional databases, and a national HIV/AIDS telephone hotline.
The $1.5 million in funding for operational costs for the new center was made available through a five-year cooperative agreement between CCP and the CDC. The CDC support includes an additional $150,000 in the first year to develop materials on voluntary counseling and testing for HIV. To date, CDC has also contributed $245,000 for information technology and database development via a contract with Analytical Sciences, Inc. CDC is responsible for HIV/AIDS prevention in the United States and assists other countries in developing, implementing and evaluating HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment programs. CDC also directs the National Prevention Information Network (NPIN), a national reference, referral, and distribution service for HIV/AIDS information in the United States.
With representatives in more than 30 countries, CCP, with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development, is a pioneer in the field of strategic, research-based communication for behavior change and health promotion that helped transform the theory and practice of public health communication. The Bloomberg School of Public Health established CCP in 1988 to focus attention on the central role of communication in health behavior and to provide leadership in the field of behavior change communication.
For more information contact: Kim Martin at Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, USA. Tel: 410 659-6140; Fax: 410 659-6266 e-mail: press@jhuccp.org.
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