Our media oriented societies are over-generous in giving out information. Too much info kills information. In fact, when there are so many choices to be made, you can easily give in to the temptation of listening to the guy who shouts the loudest. In a lopsided manner, poorer countries get much less access to information, especially in health-related matters and even more so on tobacco. If tobacco consumption is decreasing to some extent in Europe and North America, through efforts made by civil society and governments, on the other hand, in poorer countries, where the risks are not widely known, tobacco use increases every day. The tobacco industry does all that it can to cover up the long gathered and well-documented proof of its product’s risks. It adopts practices in Africa that it would no longer try to use in the Northern hemisphere. It sponsors sports events and champions, musical and cultural events, fashion shows, artists, etc. Openly. Without shame and in total impunity. To gain control of the news markets, it is even ready to cooperate with the mafia networks to flood the populations with smuggled cigarettes. Lowering the price of cigarettes, selling them as smuggled or on a stick basis, makes cigarettes available to everyone, even children. In some African countries, they sell cigarettes just outside elementary schools and even hospitals. The industry is creating addiction by keeping the prices low. When it has addicted enough smokers, it then goes to negotiate with governments to ask them to "fight against smuggling" (sic!). "Legalize our products, entrust production and distribution to us, you will be able to recover all these taxes you lose because of smuggling." Governments usually end up agreeing and then the industry rules supreme over the country’s market. Horribly cynical, the industry actually “ajusts” the composition of the cigarettes it sells to these countries in order to increase their nicotine content, making the toxicity and the addictive properties of the product even stronger.
With regards to AIDS, one can see how it is difficult for certain populations to have access to the therapies. We know now with certainty that tritherapy has less of a beneficial effect on AIDS victims if they are used to smoking. So, fighting tobacco helps fight AIDS.

In either case, informing the population and putting pressure on industries and government is essential to carry out effective health measures. Curing is fine, but preventing is better. All these struggles deserve the assistance and empowerment given by the use of modern communication tools.

read an Inoussa SAOUNA interview, Niger