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AIDS awareness pushed in new internet drama series
AIDS soap
New on-line soap tackles the "HIV is no big deal" generation
"We've found that on-line video can be a powerful new intervention tool in the fight against HIV"
A new on-line soap opera aiming to highlight the fact that "HIV is still a big deal" airs for the first time today. Dealing with a 26-year-old man living in New York, it tells the story of how he picks up a guy on-line, meets him, sleeps with him drunk only to find when he wakes up the next morning that the man is HIV positive and has not told him.
Further scenes show our 26-year-old discussing the situation with friends, one of whom is HIV positive himself, and later confronting the bed-partner with the fact that he thinks he should have told him he was positive. The project is a collaboration between experts from the fields of epidemiology and learning theory.
"We've found that on-line video can be a powerful new intervention tool in the fight against HIV," says Dr. Mary Anne Chiasson, who leads the Public Health Solutions Internet Research Group. "We are seeing that it can be as effective as one-on-one outreach, but with the internet's scope, it has the potential to reach and influence thousands of men."
You can see the first episode of the drama by clicking here.
