Part 9 – HIV / AIDS

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BBC Learning English
Talk about English
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Part 9 – HIV / AIDS


Gary: HIV/AIDS features in news stories almost every day of the year. It’s a subject
that concerns us all – the politicians who lead our countries, health workers of
all kinds and at every level, and, of course, the people infected with HIV, those
who are living with AIDS – and their families.

Clip
VOX POPS Comments from people in the field

Gary: In this series, we’re considering the major topics that appear in BBC World
Service news programmes. Today’s “big story” has a medical theme – we focus
on HIV/AIDS.
I’ll be talking to the BBC World Service Science Correspondent and we’ll hear
from a project worker who’s helping fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Zambia.
We’ll focus on some of the issues and the language behind the topic, and we’ll
look at how the subject is reported in the news.





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Clip Richard Black, WS Science Correspondent
Richard: One term – HIV – refers to the virus, the thing that actually causes the disease.
Whereas the other term – AIDS – refers to the disease itself, the set of symptoms which the
patient has.

Gary: BBC World Service Science Correspondent Richard Black.

Clip Richard Black, WS Science Correspondent
Richard: Now, the disease was discovered first. It was then called a syndrome because what
happened was: patients were turning up with a certain collection of symptoms, and when
doctors see this but they don’t know what’s causing the symptoms, they call this a syndrome.
The people were obviously suffering from an immune system that was not working properly –
so hence “immune deficiency syndrome”. And it was obviously something that was not
inherited, they were picking it up, they were acquiring it – hence Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome. Only later on did scientists find out what was actually causing this – and this is
HIV – Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

Gary: If someone has AIDS – what does that mean in practical terms?

Richard: What it means basically is that their immune systems, their bodies, cannot fight off
germs that come along – so any bacterium, any virus, any fungus which comes along which can
infect them, will infect them, and they will become sick with it. There are other things that
happen as well, for example, some infections which lead to certain types of cancer are much
more prevalent in people who have AIDS. But that’s basically the idea: the immune system
does not work properly, you cannot fight off infections.


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Gary: So what we’re saying here is that you can have HIV without actually having AIDS – is
that right?

Richard: That’s absolutely right. Many people are infected with HIV – sometimes for years
before they show the signs of AIDS.

Gary: What about the terms HIV positive and HIV negative?

Richard: HIV positive simply means that you are infected with HIV – you have the virus.
HIV negative simply means that you don’t.

Gary: HIV is a virus -- the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. A person infected with
HIV develops AIDS -- or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome – when their
immune system eventually becomes too weak – or deficient – to fight off
infections. It’s possible to be infected with the virus, to be HIV positive,
without developing the symptoms of AIDS for many years.
As we’ve heard HIV/AIDS has been described as devastating epidemic – its
impact is far reaching.

Clip Richard Black, WS Science Correspondent
Richard: It is quite simply the disease which is changing the face of many communities on
earth – particularly in sub-Saharan Africa but in the future, perhaps, in Asia as well. It is
having such a devastating effect on some communities that there are villages really where the
entire middle sector of the population – the young adults, the economically productive people,


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the parents – are being removed from the population. There are villages where there is
virtually no one left but old people and young people because of AIDS. And this is really
unparalleled –certainly in modern experience.

Gary: So we’ve said, then, that HIV/AIDS is an important issue in different parts of the
world. How does it appear in news stories?

Richard: There are several things which typically give rise to news stories about HIV and
AIDS. One is simply that there are a large number of international conferences looking at
either the science of HIV/AIDS or funding for efforts to combat it. And quite often some
prominent members of the international community are there, and they will make speeches and
this will get reported. There are studies which come out, for example, into the economic
consequences of HIV/AIDS. So that’s another time when people will report it. We have
scientific developments – not as many as one would like, but they do happen, and when they
happen, then we report those as well. And there are some individual countries where there are
particular political stories, which also put HIV/AIDS into the news.

Gary: Finally, Richard, when as a journalist you’re reporting news stories about HIV/AIDS, is
it difficult to find the sort of language to use to tell those stories?

Richard: I think it can be because when, for example, you’re talking about a scientific
development you can use language which is rather too dry, rather too impersonal. You can
almost forget, while you’re writing the story, that there are 40 odd million people out there in
the world who are infected with HIV. This is a real life situation for them, and for their
families, and for their communities. On the other hand, when you’re dealing with the people
side of it, when you’re talking about the communities which are very affected, then you can


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easily use words which many people would prefer you didn’t use – such as “sufferer”, such as
“victim” which really … you can paint a picture of people who are hopeless – who have no
hope in their daily lives. Whereas, in fact, they may be doing the best they can to live a normal
life, and have as decent a life as they can under the circumstances, and labelling people as a
“victim” where they may not feel they’re victims, is something that we always try not to do;
but it’s as very easy trap to fall into.

Gary: BBC World Service Science Correspondent Richard Black.

The international development charity VSO runs several projects in Southern
Africa in which volunteers from different countries around the world join forces
with local government institutions and organisations to strengthen their
response to HIV and AIDS.
Stuart Sutherland is currently their country director in Zambia, and I asked him
to describe the situation there – the scale of the epidemic and the impact it has
on people’s lives.
Clip Stuart Sutherland, VSO Zambia
The scale is immense … [the full transcript is not available]

Gary: Stuart Sutherland , working with the international development charity VSO in
Zambia.