Nine Companies to Finance AIDS Program in Africa

On Wednesday, nine major international companies initiated an effort to expand HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs in Africa, beginning in some cases with their own employees. AngloAmerican, ChevronTexaco, Bristol-Myers Squibb, DaimlerChrysler, Heineken, Eskom, Lafarge, Pfizer and Tata Steel will run the programs with their own money as well as with funding from the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, on a four-nation tour of Africa with top US health officials, lawmakers and business leaders, welcomed the new plan. "We have not done enough to incorporate the business community" in the fight against AIDS, he said.

"Business has a vital role to play in the war on AIDS," said Richard Holbrooke, a former US ambassador to the UN and now the president of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS. "Most companies still don't see that it is their responsibility," he said. "These companies, however, are doing their part and have offered to do more."

Paris-based Lafarge SA, the world's largest cement maker, has already trained health workers in Cameroon to run HIV/AIDS treatment programs for employees and their families.

Dutch brewer Heineken is constructing HIV treatment facilities, training health workers, and developing plans to ensure its facilities in Ghana are sustainable.

In Nigeria, San Francisco-based ChevronTexaco and other oil companies will work together to consolidate their treatment networks, which include company-run hospitals and satellite clinics.

"We can only beat this pandemic if we work together," said Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund. "Co- investment allows the private sector to contribute real assets and expertise to what must be a joint public/private collaboration in local communities."

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