Inter Press Service - Wednesday, March 31, 1999
Hemy Ambwere

For the once bouyant sugar industry is now reeling under the weight of medical and staffing costs.

So alarming is the situation that agricultural economists and doctors fear sugar production in the province may plummet if the local population does not take the AIDS threat seriously.

The warning bells were rung recently by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). In a report titled HIV/AIDS and the Commercial Agricultural Sector of Kenya, the organisation says AIDS is posing a serious challenge to the economy of sug ar growing regions.

FAO figures show that between 1995 and 1997, factories have been losing an average of 8,007 labour days each due to AIDS- related illnesses. In some agro-industries, general medical expenditure has increased 10-fold in the last decade, the report says.

Deaths of trained and skilled employees also have a bearing on the quantity and quality of goods. According to the report, many of those who died of AIDS were in the most productive phases of their lives - between the ages of 16 and 50 years.

The FAO report comes at a time when health planners and many business groups are waking up to the possible economic costs of HIV/AIDS. Nudged on by activists, many companies are beginning to participate in AIDS prevention campaigns all over the world, most vigorously in sub-Saharan Africa.

Leaders from business, international agencies and governments formed a 'Global Business Council on HIV and AIDS' in Oct. 1997 with South African President Nelson Mandela as its Honorary President.

The body aims to act as a catalyst for a broader response to HIV/AIDS by encouraging public and private sector partnerships, harnessing the expertise and knowledge of the corporate sector.

Its initiatives include participating in fundraising events, promo ting health education in communities living close to company facilities, and providing medical equipment and financial or technical assistance to voluntary groups.

"Without question, business has to respond for its own good...In many countries across the world the epidemic is affecting the workforce, markets and overall business climate," says Richard Sykes, chairman of the Council and the pharmaceutical company Glaxo Wellcome.

His comments are backed up by authoritative studies in Southern and Eastern Africa which say the HIV/AIDS epidemic results in:

- The loss of experienced personnel, the need for increased resources to hire and retrain replacements;

- An increase in absenteeism;

- A decrease in productivity; and

- Increased health care costs.

The FAO report says that the effects of the disease begin to tell on employees even before it matures as opportunistic infections and illnesses "compromise labour productivity because a sick person is unable to work."

It notes that even when they can work, their performance declines due to physical and psychological factors. However, a company hospital doctor in Nyanza who requested anonymity, says that though the hospital sometimes records several deaths every week, it is hard to say exactly how many deaths are AIDS-related. "We do not test our employees or our patients for AIDS because we do not have the testing kits," he says.

A works manager at a sugar factory says that frequent illnesses among experienced staff mean healthy employees have to put in longer working hours. According to the manager, it takes seven years for a fresh graduate to qualify as a sugar engineer after training.

From elementary education to university, it costs the nation approximately two million Kenyan shillings to train a person to be a manager. Many companies cannot easily afford to replace a lost employee - and this means there are no new recruitments and training, except on-the-job training, the manager adds. Illness and death also make it difficult to budget for salaries, medical care, funeral costs and retirement benefits.

"Because of high morbidity, some employees are retiring on medical grounds long before their actual retirement age. That means the company is spending more money in terms of benefits than has normally been the case," FAO says. But the retired workers have little or no access to medical care and their retirement benefits are often soon exhausted.

Health workers say sugar plantations and factories are ill- prepared to meet the HIV/AIDS challenge.

"People should be educated. Everyone should co-operate," says Helza Kagumba, founder and director of the Muhoroni AIDS and Family Welfare Counselling Centre. She blames poverty for the spread of HIV/AIDS in the sugar plantations, where she says women sell their bodies because there are no jobs.

The Nyanza sugar belt surrounds Kisumu town - the hub of economic and social activity in the region. Data compiled by the National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Control Programme (NASCOP) shows a 40-50 percent prevalence of HIV infection among ad ults around Kisumu, compared to a national average of eight percent.

NASCOP estimates that there are about 1.3 million HIV/AIDS- infected Kenyans. This number is expected to increase to 1.7 million by the turn of the century. To avert a collapse of the region's economy, Kagumba says "professionals and their resources have t o be mustered."

"Employers must be compelled to initiate AIDS awareness campaigns counselling programmes," she says. (END/PANOS/ha/dds/99)
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