The government is seeking to change behaviour with the relaunch of its Khomanani HIV/Aids communication campaign, a senior health official said on Wednesday.
This is how the success of the campaign will be measured, director general of the Health Department Thami Mseleku told reporters in Pretoria.
He was speaking after announcing that a consortium comprising four companies was awarded the tender to relaunch the drive to educate people about HIV/Aids.
”If the levels of information are rising, then we are successful in the campaign, but beyond that we want to say we are influencing behaviour,” Mseleku said.
The Khomanani campaign had been running for the past five years but was stopped 10 months ago when government reviewed the new tender to run the campaign.
Mseleku said that while the intensity of the HIV/Aids message might have gone down due to the gap left when the campaign was stopped, other campaigns and the department kept the issue ”topical” in the mind of South Africa.
He did not give details of what exactly the new campaign will entail but said it will focus on the following areas: HIV/Aids prevention, care, treatment and support, the role of nutrition, health promotion and tuberculosis and HIV.
The consortium, consisting of Sizwe Ntsaluba VSP, Sadmon Projects and Consulting, Iswi Multimedia and TBWA Hunt Lascaris, were chosen from a shortlist of four bidders.
The campaign will encourage people to maintain good health through healthy lifestyle choices such as safe sex, good nutrition and regular physical activities. — Sapa