Within the framework of «Virtual Classroom» project UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE) and popular “edutainment” YouTube channel «Nauchpok» on 1 December, World AIDS Day, released animated cartoon about HIV.
The main character of this cartoon, Vanya Pugovkin, is a statistically average person who is young, successful and dreams to be as famous as Mark Zuckerberg. He takes medicine three times a day – just as other 17 million people living with HIV around the world do. He has never done any drugs, neither had he received a blood transfusion, but once he forgot to buy condoms… He dreams big and makes great plans for the future – Vanya has a girlfriend whom he will not infect because he uses a condom, and eventually they will be able to have healthy children. How can it be? Vanya is now able to live a normal life just like any other person thanks to the early and correct diagnosis and his adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART).
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Plain and simple, this cartoon not only captures the impact that HIV has on human body and the perception of this disease in society – especially in terms of the HIV/AIDS denialism movement. The video also aims is to dispel popular stereotypes about the modes of HIV transmission (no reason to worry at all in case of mosquito bites or a handshake with HIV+ person) and the most vulnerable groups (unfortunately, nowadays the virus can spread far beyond the «traditional» risk groups).
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Three days after the video was released, it got more than 100 thousand views. The full version of the cartoon «The curious case of Vanya Pugovkin» in Russian
For information: Today, the Russian Federation has a population of about 146 million people. By the end of 2015, more than 800 thousand people were estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS. Every five minutes, someone becomes infected with HIV in Russia. Out of all newly detected cases of HIV, almost 45% account for unprotected sexual contacts (without a condom).