Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International - Wednesday, June 07, 2000
Timothy Kalyegira
The ILO said sub-Saharan Africa in particular would be the most affected.
Up to 23 million people are reported to be infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS.
The ILO report called for urgent action to contain the epidemic from spreading.
The report predicted that by 2020, the workforce in the Southwestern African nation of Namibia would be 22 percent lower than it was before the AIDS spread.
"It has taken society in general a long time to recognize AIDS as a serious workplace issue," said U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis Herman. "We have looked at this problem along the lines of a health-care crisis, but it is equally in my view a labor crisis because it affects the workplace, the economic health of countries and has a devastating impact in particular regions," she said.
Botswana and Zimbabwe could suffer a 21 percent decline, followed by 17 percent in South Africa, 15 percent in Kenya, 13 percent in Malawi and 12 percent in Uganda, the report said.
"Some companies have already begun to hire or train two or three employees for the same position if it is feared that employees in key positions may be lost due to AIDS," the report said.
The report quotes a 1999 survey taken in South Africa that showed 30 percent of companies had reduced benefits paid to employees because the rising number of claims for HIV/AIDS had added to wage and benefits expenses.
Apart from Uganda, which launched a national AIDS awareness campaign in 1986, most sub-Saharan African countries only publicly came to terms with the extent of the catastrophe as late as 1998, after it began to noticeably cut through the population.
South African president Thabo Mbeki last month infuriated AIDS researchers and the medical community when he questioned the assertion that AIDS is spread primarily through sexual contact.
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