The Lazarus Effect
In an experiment put forward on her Global Health Report blog, renowned health journalist and blogger Christine Gorman called on the global health blogosphere to all post on the same topic - “Prevention vs. Treatment” - on the same day - 29th January - in a bid to increase visibility for the debate.
This got me thinking about how best a PR professional can contribute to such a debate. My immediate thought was that it would be best to look at it through a media relations lens and consider whether there are any differences between ’selling-in’ stories that have a prevention angle over those that emphasise treatment. I can say that from my experience - and with only minimal authority, but backed up by an unscientific search on Google News - that it is clear that stories about treatment win against stories about prevention every time.
Let’s take a look at how antiretroviral programmes have been sold in to the media over the past years. The Lazarus Effect (showing a woman with AIDS on the brink of death ‘resurrected’ to life following a course of antiretrovirals) has been a powerful image that has resonated through the media, raising awareness of HIV/AIDS beyond the realms of the global health sphere. This makes it a powerful story. The reader sees the cause and effect of a disease, tangible results and a human face to the problem. From a PR perspective, a treatment story is often an easy sell.
Conversely, many prevention stories lack the vital ingredients of a good story - before and after images of a healthy person are hardly headline grabbing. Key prevention strategies such as handwashing and hygiene come across as being mundane and unimportant - making it much harder task to persuade journalists to cover.
What is clear is that a woman never having contracted HIV at all is a better outcome than the transformation we see from ARV treatment. For this reason, there must be a better way of making prevention stories more appealing to journalists and readers alike. Any ideas?
Digg It | Reddit | De.lic.ious
Comments (9)
January 29th, 2009 at 2:15 pm Posted by Christine Gorman
Hi Lucy,
Thanks for taking up the theme.
Funny thing about the Lazarus effect stories. Many times it’s actually the TB treatment that is most responsible for the most dramatic Lazarus effects in many HIV patients in developing countries. Learned this when covering a story in Lesotho.
Christine
January 29th, 2009 at 2:31 pm Posted by Jimmy
Lucy, this is a great topic to address. I want to point out, however, that though we may not have before and after photos, there are “controls”. Other nations make up one form of control, and history another. If we can frame an intervention in terms of “XX people are alive today that would have otherwise been dead, thanks to handwashing”, at least we can begin to build understanding that prevention measures are in fact a vital form of treatment.
January 29th, 2009 at 2:56 pm Posted by Prevention vs Treatment
[...] Lucy Yeatman: The Lazarus Effect [...]
January 29th, 2009 at 6:38 pm Posted by Tim Fiennes
Interesting point, and something that resonates throughout the charity sector as well as in health.
Charitable causes that focus on treatment rather than prevention often attract more funding from the general public because they provoke strong emotional reactions - people who give money can point to a problem and say to themselves ‘yes, i solved that, i am a good person’. For instance, removing someone from a terrible situation (such as a child from an abusive household, or rehabilitating a drug addict), somehow feels more satisfying than saying ‘yes, i stopped this potential victim of child abuse from being abused in the first place’.
Without wanting to reduce issues of humanity, using monetary terms can sometimes be helpful - in the child abuse case - spending money on investigating child abuse, taking the child into care, court proceedings, counselling, fostering etc etc - the bill must be in the hundreds of thousands. However, spending a smaller amount identifying a potential victim and preventing the abuse obviously saves the crime from being committed, but in the long run costs less money.
Same with HIV? Spend money on educating and have less people who are HIV+, or, spend even more money on ARV treatment….?
January 30th, 2009 at 5:21 am Posted by Vicky
I don’t know a huge amount about the issue raised, but as a trainee journalist I have a few thoughts.
As you say the big problem with prevention is the lack of a good story. As a trainee journalist we are continually told to think of ‘the reader’ and what they want or need to read. A story of treatment and a ‘happy ever after’ ending or even a sad endingis far more fulfilling and satisfying to someone reading a newspaper or magazine or watching a documentary or news story on the TV. (The story has closure while prevention is ongoing)
To entice the media into prevention stories perhaps you could combine the two ideas. People want the ‘good’ story but there is nothing to say that a feature on treatment can’t include side bars or box outs (pieces on the same issue additional to the feature with extra info included) on how to prevent the disease or even someone who is having treatment giving their opinions on what should be done by individuals and organisations to prevent disease. Or even their own regrets about their own actions.
There are ways to make prevention more appealing if presented in the right way. Off the top of my head- a story of a young adult who has watched first hand the effect of a disease in family member or close friend. This could then show the treatment but also how that person is trying their best to prevent the disease in themselves. (Obviously this wouldn’t work for hereditary conditions)
January 30th, 2009 at 3:32 pm Posted by Prevention vs. treatment in global health : Covering Health
[...] from a public relations perspective: differences between ’selling-in’ stories that have a prevention angle over those that emphasise …“ var addthis_pub = ‘Pia’; var addthis_brand = ‘AHCJ’;var addthis_language = ‘en’;var [...]
February 6th, 2009 at 7:09 am Posted by Blogging Global Health Perspectives
[...] Ruder Finn’s DotOrg (U.K.): The Lazarus Effect Lucy asks “Are there are any differences between ’selling-in’ stories that have a prevention angle over those that emphasise ….” [...]
February 8th, 2009 at 7:40 am Posted by Tony
The MMR and the (Oxford) Jenner Institute reports are recent ‘prevention’ stories which may offer pointers — to me, the MMR story seems particularly significant — but of course it depends who you are trying to reach.
August 9th, 2009 at 9:23 pm Posted by Prevention vs. Treatment: A False Choice · All The News You Need
[...] Ruder Finn’s DotOrg (U.K.): The Lazarus EffectLucy asks “Are there are any differences between ’selling-in’ stories that have a prevention angle over those that emphasise ….” [...]
Post Your Comment