An advert from the leprosy campaign

The BBC World Service Trust launched a health campaign, using body consciousness to fight leprosy - Brazil's forgotten and disfiguring disease which until now has been widely ignored.

The media campaign, implemented in January 2003 was backed by all of Brazil's major broadcasters, is being widely seen and heard by millions of Brazilians.

Modern images with sexy, attractive people are proving highly effective in making Brazilians sit up and take notice of this disease   Roy Head, Health Projects Director

Watch the campaign adverts:

Young and beautiful

The month-long campaign featured pictures of young, beautiful people sunbathing and enjoying candlelit suppers in scenes that Brazilians of every class can identify with. The campaign was also backed by the WHO and Brazil's major TV and radio stations.

The health messages were carried by all 13 major TV networks and some 2,300 radio stations in the huge media campaign in which Brazilian celebrities also took part.

On air

TV and radio broadcasts went on air at the start of January 2003. Already the campaign had an immediate impact in Brazil with the national helpline receiving up to 600 telephone calls a day.

The campaign, which urges people to seek treatment that is being provided free by the government, is backed by Brazil's Minister of Health, Dr Humerto Costa, who has pledged to reduce leprosy in Brazil by 2005.

The country has the second highest number of cases of leprosy in the world. Medical advances in the 1980s mean people can be cured but because of the stigma attached to the disease, people are often reluctant to come forward for treatment.