Grey's Anatomy helps enrich HIV awareness

Score one for broadcast television. With the advent of cable television, and now with the potential for the public to view 500 channels, broadcast TV has lost most of its power to influence. Once there was a time when a hit show could capture 30 or 40% of the population, today they are lucky to grab 5%.

Because of that loss of viewership broadcast television has essentially given up on presenting important issues. The focus has increasingly become mindless fodder that kills as many brain cells as it entertains. The original intention of television to help inform the public has gone the way of vacuum tubes and Black and White sets.

Yet occasionally there are issues important enough that the Hollywood executives break from their constant pursuit of eyeballs. For Grey’s Anatomy the issue at hand was HIV.

Now I bet that most of my readers are aware that HIV can be transmitted from one person to another via fluid exchanges. That means saliva, blood, mucus and so on. Obviously that also means that a mother with HIV can transmit the disease to her unborn child. But did you know that if given proper treatment the baby could have a 98% chance of NOT getting HIV.

Yes, it is true and not a television plot device.

The episode was written with the help of the Kaiser Family Foundation. The goal was to inform the public and to see if that information was absorbed by the public.

“One week before the show, 15% of the viewers surveyed said that they were aware of the mother-to-child HIV transmission risk. One week after the show, 61% of viewers of the episode were aware of the risk. Six weeks after the show, 45% of viewers remembered the information correctly (Childs, ABC News, 9/17)”

Now I am sure that my readers are far beyond the mere 15% that realized HIV could be transferred from mother to child. But I’m not as sure how many knew that proper treatment could lower the risk of the child, nor how low that risk could be made to be.

Still it’s amazing that so many failed to realize the positive power of television. In all the formats, cable or broadcast, this is one medium that can reach people of all ages, across the world, 24 hours a day. When television was first created the intention was to inform and entertain.

With those 25 and under the most at risk, with the continuing growth of HIV and AIDS, with no cure any closer than the first day the disease was learned of information is vital. We need to disseminate the truth about this disease, the transmission the risk factors the treatment.

I commend the Kaiser Foundation and Grey’s Anatomy for taking this risk. I commend the Hollywood executives that for a moment forgot that viewers are the only goal. I commend the actors for taking a moment to promote a good for the public over their career.

Television should not be the same as going to a college lecture. But it can be a tool that can enrich lives, maybe even save them. As long as threats such as HIV and AIDS exists we need to use our best tool to keep us informed and remembering how to live long healthy lives.