South African Press Association (Johannesburg) - August 18, 2003

At present, though, HIV-Aids prevalence among the industry's 55,000 workers was unknown, said Louis Hollander, chairman of a coordinating committee that drew up the strategy.

A Medical Research Council study done among long-distance truck drivers in the Kwazulu-Natal Midlands in 2001 found that 56 percent of them were HIV-positive.

At one truck stop in Newcastle, 95 percent of those tested were found to be infected.

The infection rate among truck drivers was believed to be "much, much higher" than in other industries, said Nthabi Matsau, deputy director-general of the Department of Health.

A document outlining the strategy reads: "Should HIV/Aids infections continue unabated the... pandemic has potentially paralysing consequences for the industry with significant economic implications for the industry as well as our country."

The objectives of the strategy include awareness education, voluntary testing, treatment, counselling and after-care management.

Hollander told reporters at the launch in Johannesburg that a project had started a month ago for the voluntary testing of long-distance drivers of a specific company at its premises nationwide, in conjunction with the University of the Witwatersrand.

"There has been an overwhelming response."

However, Hollander believed it was desirable that tests be conducted off company premises.

There are seven clinics with training centres along national routes in the country where drivers with sexually transmitted diseases are being treated, and where people are being made aware of the dangers of unprotected sex.

These were sponsored as a joint venture by the government and the industry, including its national bargaining council, Hollander said.

But a roadside clinic could not be used for testing, he said.

"You can't give a person bad news and then he gets in his vehicle and drives off."

The strategy calls for a national network of HIV testing and counselling providers.

"Existing pathology laboratories can be contracted to provide this service..." Private and government clinics could also be involved, it says.

Hollander said donors would have to be found to fund the provision of antiretroviral drugs to HIV/Aids patients.

"We have to get a company to help us take [the strategy] forward." Asked whether the Department of Health would help fund such a project, Matsau said: "I don't see how it can't."

Emily Fourie, chief negotiator of the Professional Transport Workers' Union, said the industry had made progress over the last few years with regards to making people more aware about HIV/Aids.

An increasing number of workers realised that being tested for the virus did not jeopardise their job security, but was vital for their health, she said.

"We see the light at the end of the tunnel."
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