Cheaper to treat HIV-positive teachers

A government study to determine the exact prevalence of HIV/AIDS among teachers is currently being conducted in South Africa. However, the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) said it made "no sense for the education department to duplicate work already done, while teachers are dying". DA HIV/AIDS spokesman, Mike Waters, argued that it was more expensive to let teachers living with HIV/AIDS die than to provide them with antiretroviral drugs. The DA has estimated that, on average, a teacher who retired on grounds of ill health and subsequently died would receive a benefits package of close to US $24,000, while those who died in service received $25,000. The cost of providing high quality antiretroviral therapy for the lifetime of an HIV-positive person in South Africa is estimated at around $22,000. "It becomes very clear, then, that the cost of providing antiretroviral therapy vastly outweighs the benefits of ignoring the problem," the South African Press Association quoted Waters as saying.