A Way to Foster Employee Health in Africa

A UN report released last month names sub-Saharan Africa as the focal point of the pandemic. Stephen Lewis, UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS for Africa, said the disease has devastated the area's agricultural sector and driven a severe food shortage. Businesses suffer from increased absenteeism and rising recruitment and training costs as employees with HIV/AIDS sicken and die.

Debswana Diamond Co. in Botswana is the first company in the region to offer voluntary HIV testing and to cover costs of employee's antiretroviral drugs. "Debswana is the model for our country," said Dr. Banu Khan, head of Botswana's AIDS programs. "Antiretroviral therapies will lead to AIDS prevention, they will prevent children from becoming orphans, they will prolong life."

Other companies have followed Debswana's lead. In South Africa, DaimlerChrysler, Coca-Cola and Barclay's Bank are among the dozens of businesses offering antiretroviral treatment and AIDS awareness programs. "We're stepping in because the government isn't," said Errol Sackstein, general director of pen manufacturer Bic South Africa.

Brian Brink, senior vice president of mining conglomerate Anglo American, said he recognized the "monstrous challenge facing [South Africa's] government in dealing with people who are unemployed, have poor nutrition, no sanitation, lack housing. But you can start, and I would argue that you could begin with the economically active people that you need to keep the country moving." Brink noted that providing AIDS therapies was a matter of enlightened self-interest for his company. "When ... you've got sickness and death all around you, when you're going to funerals every weekend -- all these things are going to have a negative impact on morale and productivity," he said.

As welcome as these private programs are, most companies only provide medicine for employees and a spouse. Many African men have more than one wife, and no medicine is provided for the children. Both patients and businesses suffer the stigma HIV/AIDS carries in African culture.

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