JOHANNESBURG, Oct 9 (AFP) - Big business in South Africa has become a leading force in the fight against AIDS, investing effort and money into treatment programmes to put ailing workers back on the job.
"It's absolutely essential," said Alex Govender, head of Volkswagen South Africa's health services.
"If you don't do anything the figures are going to increase. The more it affects the community, you can imagine the impact it will have and that's where we draw our workforce from."
The Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GBC) last month honoured two locally-based firms, Volkswagen SA and diamond giant De Beers, for their comprehensive testing and treatment plans for workers.
South Africa is one of the worst-affected countries in the world, with some one in seven people -- around 6.5 million people -- infected with HIV last year, according to figures released by the health ministry in July.
"In today's global economy, a disease that has killed more than 30 million people is everyone's problem, and every company's responsibility," said GBC president Richard Holbrooke.
De Beers managing director Jonathan Oppenheimer, whose company started providing free AIDS drugs in July 2003, said it made business sense to deal with the pandemic.
"With the De Beers Groups most important diamond producing companies currently based in southern Africa, we recognize the need for a progressive and innovative approach to meet the threat posed by the epidemic to our business, our employees, their families and the communities in which we operate," he said in a statement.
In sub-Saharan Africa around 26.6 million people were infected with HIV at the end of 2003, out of an estimated global tally of 40 million, according to UN estimates.
A report released by the World Economic Forum last year showed that companies in South Africa and Botswana were leaders on the continent when it came to AIDS programmes.
The South African Business Coalition on HIV and AIDS in a study undertaken last year said some 41 percent of South African firms had AIDS policies in place, many of them in the mining industry.
"It's imperative for companies to undertake HIV/AIDS programmes," said James Steele, manager of the Anglogold Ashanti's AIDS programme.
"Our experience is that the people who get onto treatment see an improvement in health. The vast majority of them go back to work and they continue with normal lives," added Steele.
He said the gold mining giant started giving free AIDS drugs to their employees in November 2002, a programme that costs some 16 million rand (2.4 million dollars, two million euros) annually.
About 3,200 of its 33,000 employees have tested positively for HIV and 929 are currently on anti-retroviral treatment sponsored by the company.
Although many workers remain shy to go for testing, Steele said the number of employees volunteering for tests is on the rise.
At Volkswagen SA, its four-year-old AIDS treatment programme has seen a much larger chunk going for tests -- some 60 percent of its workforce volunteered for HIV tests, and six percent were infected.
Govender, who is in charge of its health services, said 73 employees were currently on free anti-retroviral treatment.
"We have been able to fully reintegrate five employees who have had full-blown AIDS into the workplace," he added, saying Volkswagen SA's AIDS programme cost around four million rand per year.
Although companies say it is difficult to quantify the cost of AIDS in the workplace, the WEF last year said several countries in sub-Saharan Africa were projected to have a 30 percent lower workforce in 2020 because of HIV.
A report by the International Labour Organisation issued in last July said the AIDS pandemic cost South Africa more than 70 billion dollars in the 10 years to 2002.
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