Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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New Vision (Kampala) - December 2, 2003
Raymond Mikah
"There is a feeling in Uganda that AIDS is no longer a threat, but I want to tell you we are still badly affected. It's time that we the private sector fully join government in the fight," Kigongo said late last week.
Kigongo made the passionate appeal during a business luncheon organised by UNCCI in partnership with the Uganda Business Coalition. Yesterday was the World AIDS day.
Speaking on the theme, 'Scaling up AIDS treatment access in the private sector', Kigongo said AIDS is killing the most productive people. She said this affects companies and the country at large.
"We should not continue to sit back and wait for the Government to do everything," Kigongo said.
Over 42m people world-wide have Aids.
Kigongo said the time has come for more business organisations to provide Anti Retroviral drugs (ARVs)as well as play an active role in sensitising other workers about the dangers HIV/AIDS.
"Get involved in educating your workers and families, because this is no longer the role of government alone. We all know that without healthy body and mind there in no healthy economy," Kigongo said.
"About 99% of us in this room have either lost a relative a family member a friend or business associate to AIDS and this is the time we put our heads together and joint government in the fight against AIDS," Kigongo added.
Herbert Zaake, the head of human resources at Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) presented a paper on SCB's experience. He said AIDS is a cost to companies, because it reduces productivity.
He said early intervention by the bank management has lead to decline of AIDS prevalence from from about six people per year to almost nil today.
He said this had been made possible by sensitising workers. He said this year SCB started giving free ARVs to relevant workers.
Dr. Apollo Kagwa from Bank of Uganda said they used to lose 20 people annually to AIDS, but the number dropped to less than five when the bank started providing 90% of medical care to its staff.
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