Beginning in 1993 and every two years since, the Chilean government has undertaken campaigns aimed at raising AIDS awareness through posters, newspapers, magazines, radio and television. Mainly due to opposition from conservative Catholic Church sectors, the campaigns have been sources of controversy. Catholic university stations in Santiago and Valparaiso have consistently censored such initiatives' messages, as has the privately owned TV network Megavision.

On June 24, Health Minister Pedro Garcia said the government would launch this year's campaign in mid- or late September, adding that it would not include TV commercials but would focus on "field work and radio messages," to avoid disputes with television stations. On June 28, Interior Minister Francisco Vidal said although the campaign would not use TV commercials, it would urge TV stations to air brief public service announcements shorter than the average commercial.

Since the first HIV/AIDS case was reported in Chile in 1984, more than 3,000 people have died of the disease. The country's National AIDS Commission statistics from 2004 show over 6,000 reported cases of AIDS and another 6,500 HIV cases. The government estimates the real number infected is 32,000 while nongovernmental sources put it at over 50,000 out of a 15.9 million population. In the last five years, HIV infection has increased 29.1 percent among women.

Most of the newly infected women contracted the virus from their husbands. The newest HIV/AIDS campaign will seek to raise awareness of the importance of condom use in both heterosexual and homosexual relations when there are risk factors such as extramarital sex or sex with multiple partners.

Experts noted that targeting messages to young people is important, and agreed that television is essential to a successful prevention campaign.

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