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HARARE, Zimbabwe, December 2, 2004 — PSI's Studio 263 television show, Zimbabwe's most popular soap opera, celebrated its two-year anniversary with a month of community outreach culminating with a group of its actors receiving HIV counseling and testing (VCT) at a PSI New Start center. Zimbabwe's New Start centers have averted over 1,000 primary HIV infections in the first ten months of 2004. Studio 263, whose title refers to the international calling code for Zimbabwe, airs five nights a week and has a dedicated following of viewers who tune in for the show's dramatic twists and useful health information. The show tackles issues of love, relationships, family matters and HIV/AIDS. Many of the actors are popular with Zimbabweans and have become role models for youth. Their choice to undergo counseling and testing generated widespread media coverage in Zimbabwe. The cast and crew of Studio 263 participated in a month of outreach and celebration that included hospital, orphanage and hospice visits and concluded with a visit to the New Start center where they chose to "Get Real" and learn their HIV status. Over 14,000 Zimbabweans go through New Start centers every month to learn their HIV status. While this is an impressive figure, it is not enough. Less than 5% of people who are living with HIV in Africa know their HIV status, while the other 95 % continue to unwittingly transmit the virus to spouses, partners and children. The characters and plots in Studio 263 reflect real-life situations that Zimbabwean youth face every day such as choosing to abstain from sex or learning one's HIV status. The show also brings to light issues like discordant couples, where one partner is HIV positive and the other is HIV negative, and how the well-trained counselors at New Start centers assist couples in managing this. Twenty percent of the couples who come in for New Start testing are discordant. Disclosure of one's status is an important element in fighting stigma for an HIV positive person. Individuals can live positively with HIV as is demonstrated by Studio 263 character Tendayi who is seeking support from her family and friends as she wants to disclose her status publicly to support other HIV positive people and to share how to live positively. The decision to seek VCT is an important one and, even though the cast and crew of Studio 263 did it publicly, their decisions and the choice of people with whom to disclose the information remains personal. — Noni Gachuhi, PSI/Zimbabwe
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