Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - December 3, 2003
The companies - Anglo American PLC (AAUK), ChevronTexaco Corp. (CVX), DaimlerChrysler AG (DCX), Eskom, Heineken Holding NV (00895.AE), Lafarge SA (12053.FR) and Tata Iron & Steel Co. Ltd (500470.BY) - will run the programs with their own money and funds from the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS in a statement.
The programs will help build health care infrastructure in Africa, where 30 million of the 40 million infected worldwide live. Health care infrastructure in many parts of the continent is notoriously weak.
"We came to Africa to increase private-sector engagement in the war on HIV/AIDS, and this announcement is exactly the kind of innovative idea we want to promote," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said in a statement.
"Leveraging the resources of companies in this way is a great new opportunity for communities to realize the opportunity of the Global Fund," Thompson, who is on a four-country tour Africa, said.
Thompson, who is accompanied by top U.S. health officials, lawmakers and business leaders, began the trip in Zambia before moving on Rwanda and then Kenya. The final stop is in Uganda.
In Cameroon, Paris-based Lafarge, the world's largest cement maker, has already trained health workers who will run HIV and AIDS treatment programs for employees and their families in the central African country.
In Ghana, the Dutch brewer Heineken is building HIV treatment facilities, training health care workers and developing plans to ensure the facilities are sustainable.
In Nigeria, Chevron Texaco and other companies pumping oil in the West African country will work together to consolidate their treatment networks, which include company-run hospitals and satellite clinics.
The money for the training and facilities being provided by the companies and the Global Fund will "be critical to the achievement of such global targets" as providing 3 million infected people with the latest drugs available by the end of 2005, an initiative announced by the World Health Organization and UNAIDS on Monday, the Global Business Coalition said.
"We can only beat this pandemic if we work together," said Richard Feachem, the executive director of the Global Fund. "Co-investment allows the private sector to contribute real assets and expertise to what must be a joint public/private collaboration in local communities."
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