Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia - Friday June 25, 1999
Annan said AIDS was wiping out economic gains in developing countries and the economic impact could spread in the same devastating way as the virus itself.
"The struggle against AIDS is a moral imperative...It is also a commercial imperative. It makes good business sense," Annan said in a lecture commemorating Britain's late Princess Diana, who campaigned to raise awareness of AIDS.
"AIDS is unraveling fragile and hard-won success stories throughout the developing world," he said.
In Africa -- the world's worst-hit region -- AIDS was stunting economic recovery, damaging local businesses and hurting their international trade partners.
In Asia, trade was also set to suffer if the epidemic continued to expand and kill millions of people, Annan said.
Citing a survey in Kenya which predicted that AIDS-related deaths and illness would cut gross domestic product by 15 percent within six years, Annan detailed how AIDS threatened employees and employers alike.
"The effects on individual firms can be crippling. Africa's businesses must cope with increased absenteeism, the decline of an already limited skilled labor force and higher payments for sickness, disability and death," he said. Annan named a handful of companies he said were investing in prevention and therapy programs, education projects, medical tests and research.
He issued three challenges to companies in both industrialized and developing nations. He called on them to:
-- end prejudice against AIDS-affected employees and allow them to continue working;
-- protect communities by encouraging AIDS awareness and distributing condoms;
-- band together with organizations already fighting the AIDS epidemic.
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