Strong economy bad for HIV-AIDS assessment

THE current bullish economy might lull the private sector into under-estimating the effects of HIV-AIDS on their workforce, the SA Business Coalition on HIV- AIDS said on Friday.

“The effects of HIV are being largely masked by the overall strength of the economy,” representative Brad Mears told the SA parliament’s ad hoc joint committee on corporate governance. He said no comprehensive research have been done on the effects of the pandemic on consumer behaviour or the country’s economic growth.”Some say it might be pulling our growth back by four percentage points but we really don’t know,” Mears said.He said not enough research was being done for the private sector to be adequately informed to fight the pandemic.While businesses were concerned about the impact HIV might have on their profits in five years time, they were doing very little to put in place mitigation programmes.The number of companies with HIV-awareness programmes varied from 27 per cent in the retail industry to 79 per cent in financial services.The percentage of companies with voluntary counselling and testing ranged from 13 to 66 per cent in different sectors.Three per cent of companies in the wholesale sector provided antiretroviral therapy, compared to 38 per cent for financial services at the upper end.Mears said 61 per cent of large companies had done research on the impact of HIV on their labour force, compared to 28 per cent among medium sized companies and twelve percent of small ones.He appealed for more pro-active leadership from government and for tax benefits for those companies which did provide antiretroviral drugs.-Nampa-SapaHe said no comprehensive research have been done on the effects of the pandemic on consumer behaviour or the country’s economic growth.”Some say it might be pulling our growth back by four percentage points but we really don’t know,” Mears said.He said not enough research was being done for the private sector to be adequately informed to fight the pandemic.While businesses were concerned about the impact HIV might have on their profits in five years time, they were doing very little to put in place mitigation programmes.The number of companies with HIV-awareness programmes varied from 27 per cent in the retail industry to 79 per cent in financial services.The percentage of companies with voluntary counselling and testing ranged from 13 to 66 per cent in different sectors.Three per cent of companies in the wholesale sector provided antiretroviral therapy, compared to 38 per cent for financial services at the upper end.Mears said 61 per cent of large companies had done research on the impact of HIV on their labour force, compared to 28 per cent among medium sized companies and twelve percent of small ones.He appealed for more pro-active leadership from government and for tax benefits for those companies which did provide antiretroviral drugs.-Nampa-Sapa