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Anglo American announces further steps in its HIV/AIDS strategy
Anglo American press release, 6 August 2002.
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The provision of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for HIV/AIDS has been the subject of intense discussion and research within the Anglo American Group over the last eighteen months.
Operating companies will now be encouraged to enhance their HIV/AIDS wellness programmes by making ART available at company expense to HIV positive employees who do not have an ART benefit through a medical aid scheme and who have progressed to a stage of HIV infection where ART is clinically indicated. These companies will consult with both trade unions and government on issues relating to implementation.
The progressive rollout will be coordinated across the group using available health care facilities and according to well-defined protocols with rigorous monitoring and evaluation. The pace of the rollout will vary at company level depending, inter alia, on the availability of suitable company health infrastructure. The first steps on a pilot basis have already been signalled in terms of the AngloGold/Union and Association agreement on HIV/AIDS signed on 25 July 2002.
It is accepted internationally that the magnitude of the health challenge posed by HIV/AIDS, especially in southern Africa, is such that it cannot be adequately addressed by individual companies or even sectors acting in isolation but requires a partnership between all stakeholders. Anglo American and its operating companies will, therefore, seek to work with national and provincial governments and local authorities, international donors such as the Global Fund, and appropriate NGOs and communities in order that the public sector capacity is created to extend ART delivery beyond the workplace to the broader community, including dependents of employees and retired employees, who do not belong to medical aid schemes with an ART benefit.
The costs to individual operating companies will depend on the level of HIV prevalence, the rate of uptake by employees meeting the clinical criteria for ART and on the prices and types of drugs prescribed. It is anticipated that the prices of drugs will fall significantly as usage increases and/or generic alternatives become available.
The operating companies expect to derive benefits from their HIV programmes through extending the working lives of infected employees and containing future AIDS related costs, including absenteeism, medical expenses, pension benefits and the recruitment and training costs required to replace employees who become too ill to work.
Finally, operating companies within the Anglo American Group will continue to promote their substantial education and prevention programmes as it is vital to ensure that the large majority of our employees who are HIV negative remain so. One of the key benefits of a comprehensive strategy with an emphasis on voluntary counselling and testing is that it promotes the individual behavioural change that is essential to turn the tide of the AIDS epidemic.
BACKGROUND
During the 1990's Anglo American developed a comprehensive HIV/AIDS programme that covered both prevention and care of its employees suffering from HIV/AIDS. In the Anglo American Safety, Health and Environmental Report of 2001 this was published as a strategy comprising the following key elements.
* Pursuing the HIV/AIDS prevention campaign with renewed vigour, with special emphasis on partnerships and community interventions.
* Establishing the prevalence of HIV infection at all southern African operations through voluntary, anonymous, unlinked HIV prevalence surveys.
* Encouraging large scale voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) for HIV infection in the workforce and in the surrounding community.
Linking VCT to a programme of care for people infected with HIV.
* Implementing large-scale prevention and treatment campaigns for sexually transmitted infections (STI's).
* Implementing a formal system of HIV/AIDS Reporting.
* Conducting research into the effectiveness of the Group's HIV/AIDS strategy.
* Participating in HIV clinical vaccine trials.
HIV/AIDS wellness programmes are an integral part of the care and support that are provided for individuals that are infected with HIV. The elements of these programmes now comprise:
* understanding the disease through intensive counselling and support;
* encouraging a healthy lifestyle, with good nutrition;
* preventing and treating opportunistic infections, especially TB;
* providing access to appropriate and sustainable antiretroviral therapy (ART) when clinically indicated.
Anglo American's pioneering work in the field of policy and advocacy on HIV/AIDS has been recognised by a Commonwealth award for action on HIV/AIDS in 2001. |
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