Aids programmes help the bottom line

24 July 2016 - 02:00 By ASHA SPECKMAN and NOMPUMELELO MAGWAZA

HIV/Aids was once considered a major threat to business in South Africa, but over the last decade big companies have invested millions in treating and supporting affected staff, helping to stabilise their workforces.

The accelerated rollout of HIV/ Aids programmes over the last decade was in response to the business sector's concern at the impact of the disease after the government failed initially to respond with a targeted antiretroviral programme.Companies have jointly spent millions of rands to provide testing, counselling and treatment to employees and their families.Anecdotally, some companies say that as a result of these programmes absenteeism has declined. Sibanye Gold, the country's largest gold miner, said this week absenteeism was at about 15% and in the past 18 months those who were off sick accounted for 2.7% to 3.5% of unavailable labour.story_article_left1Sibanye's longest-serving employee on HIV/Aids treatment has been helped since 1999 and remains a productive worker.A study conducted in South Africa and published in the PlosMed journal last year showed that extending ARV treatment to 97% of eligible employees in a mining company from 10% could lead to the survival and retention of infected employees, reduced absenteeism and benefit payments. The annual cost of HIV/Aids to the company could drop by 5%, the study found.Despite the gains made in supplying ARVs on a wide scale, including a massive rollout by the government, business continues to spend on HIV/Aids programmes.Board members of the South African Business Coalition on Health and Aids this week said any impression that the focus had shifted away from HIV/Aids was misplaced.Coalition director Simphiwe Mabhele said that when Stats SA reported on the top 10 diseases that contribute to mortality, it listed several opportunistic diseases ahead of HIV/Aids."Most companies realised they will have to consider other communicable and noncommunicable diseases. So that kind of evolution created an impression that we moved away from HIV," Mabhele said.Susan Preller, CEO of the coalition, said that with private sector co-funding it had over the past four years extended testing for HIV to the informal sector.In South Africa the mining sector is among those heavily invested in HIV/Aids programmes.Anglo American spends $1.4-million (about R20-million) annually on ARV treatment for staff as part of a programme launched 30 years ago. It has set aside $5-million over the next few years for research into other variants of treatment. The five years of progressive HIV policy vacuum in the late 1990s enabled another three million new HIV positive South Africans to arrive in the queue at a total cost of R30-billion a year Company efforts are now supported by the government. Today South Africa runs the largest ARV treatment campaign aimed at HIV/Aids worldwide. In the past year 3.4million people have been treated at a cost of R23-billion, compared to 400,000 people treated in 2008.Health economist Alex van den Heever, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, said: "Mortality over the period 2001 to 2008, which also followed a decade of poorly devised and implemented prevention programmes, is the legacy that could have been avoided."The failure of the government "to generally implement more effective social protection strategies for a wide range of risk, including HIV and Aids, faced by the majority of the population is a threat to healthy economic development", he said.But the impact of HIV/Aids on GDP growth has not been verified. Stats SA's chief director for national accounts, Michael Manamela, said: "Stats SA measures GDP and HIV statistics independently and no causality is established."This week Dr Jameson Malemela, president of health and wellness at Sibanye Gold, said: "The five years of progressive HIV policy vacuum in the late 1990s in South Africa enabled another three million new HIV positive South Africans to arrive in the queue at a total cost of R30-billion a year and still rising."Manamela said this became a cost to the economy but it did not result in a decline in GDP. "Only over the next 30-50 years will the full cost be felt in the economy."  Companies play vital role in war on HIV/Aids • Sibanye Gold implemented a "highly active" antiretroviral therapy programme several years ago. The company offered 15,058 staff voluntary counselling and testing. Of the 4,205 employees tested, 739 were HIV-positive.• Harmony Gold, which employs 29,000 people, has registered 4016 employees on its ARV programme. Almost 80% of employees agreed to be tested for HIV and about 19,234 attended the voluntary counselling and testing programme.• At Anglo American, 89,866 employeesattended the company's voluntary counselling testing programme last year. These figures include staff and contractors at Anglo American Platinum, Anglo American Coal SA, Kumba Iron Ore and De Beers. The company said 88% of its employees had enrolled in its HIV wellness programme. An estimated 72% of Anglo's workers are HIV-positive and receive ARVs.story_article_right2In 2003 SABMiller introduced a managed healthcare system for employees and their dependants throughout operations in Africa. Spokeswoman Robyn Chalmers said the company spent about R3.6-million annually on participants in its treatment and monitoring programme. An additional R1-million was allocated to its voluntary counselling and testing programme. The brewer has also distributed 17.8million condoms to more than 11,800 taverns in South Africa since 2010 as part of the government's Project Promote programme. "This means that more than 38,500 new HIV/Aids infections have been averted, according to a study by John Stover," said Chalmers . Stover is former president of the US-based Futures Institute. The study found that for every 500 condoms distributed, at least one infection was averted.• Vehicle manufacturer Mercedes-Benz South Africa has spent more than R33-million on corporate social responsibility projects focused on HIV/Aids since 2008. The company has also partnered with the National Bargaining Council of the Road Freight and Logistics Industry in the Trucking Wellness programme, which educates and provides healthcare support to truckers. Research shows that long-distance truckers are major contributors to the spread of HIV/Aids.• Between 2005 and 2012 Standard Bank established a network of peer educators trained in HIV/Aids. Over the past four years the bank has broadened the focus of its HIV/Aids programme to include other diseases. Bankmed, the medical aid scheme for the banking industry, says a small percentage of its members are infected with HIV. Over the past decade there has been a decline in mortality rates of those registered on Bankmed's HIV special care programme. ..

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