IRIN PlusNews HIV/AIDS Briefs, 27 August 2001

SOUTH AFRICA: Companies consider financial implications of HIV/AIDS AFRICA: E-mail discussion on home and community-based care SOUTH AFRICA: Companies consider financial implications of HIV/AIDS At a conference held in Cape Town on Friday to discuss the financial implications of HIV/AIDS, South Africa’s leading mining companies said they were offering treatment packages as an incentive for employees to go for testing. Brian Brink, senior vice president for medical affairs at Anglo American, told the conference that the country would never defeat HIV/AIDS unless it could break the silence, Reuters reported on Friday. “The one short-term thing that is going to turn this crisis around is treatment. The only way to get people to go for tests is to improve the care for those who are infected,” he was quoted as saying. Brink said Anglo American had found that employees could keep working effectively in a wellness programme long after they would have died without intervention, but that there was little incentive to come forward without the promise of care and counselling. He said that with drug prices falling, Anglo had included antiretroviral therapy in its programme. Gold Fields Chief Executive Chris Thompson said the average rate of HIV/AIDS in his company was 26.4 percent, though a programme to limit new infections was proving effective. Thompson said Gold Fields was offering an “Aid for AIDS” treatment package that did not include antiretroviral drugs, but would consider their application if prices fell further. Laubi Walters, director of the Medscheme medical insurance group, said most patients sought help only when the infection developed into full-blown AIDS, making treatment much more expensive and much less effective. Most South Africans do not carry comprehensive health insurance and most medical aid programs exclude guaranteed treatment for HIV/AIDS. AFRICA: E-mail discussion on home and community-based care Join a pre-conference email discussion leading up to the Fifth International Conference on Home and Community Care for Persons Living with HIV/AIDS taking place in Chiang Mai, Thailand from 17-20 December 2001. The theme of the conference is “The Power of Humanity” and it is being organised by the Thailand Red Cross Society, the World Health Organisation and the Thailand government. Discussions will start in August 2001 and continue until the start of the conference in December, 2001. The four main pre-conference discussion themes will be: 1. Care, treatment and support in the community 2. Stigmatisation and discrimination in the social context of care. 3. Enabling and empowering environment so as to support care 4. Positive living As part of the initiative, the pre-conference discussion is hoping to identify up to fifteen Key Correspondents (KCs) from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. The KCs will provide national perspectives and contribute to pre-conference discussions, as well as being brought to the conference in Thailand to report on proceedings. Those who are interested in becoming a KC should send a curriculum vitae to: [email protected]. KCs will also be identified during the pre-conference discussions based on their active participation in the forum. The pre-conference thematic discussions will take place on ProCAARE, an email discussion forum that serves as a vital link between health care workers, particularly those in developing countries, ProCAARE aims to facilitate the global exchange of information and knowledge pertaining to HIV/AIDS. ProCAARE is a collaborative effort between SATELLIFE, the Harvard AIDS Institute and HDN. If you are already a member of ProCAARE, more information on what to expect will be sent to you shortly. If you are not already taking part in ProCAARE, and to make sure that you are part of this exciting discussion from the outset, send an email now to: [email protected] with the following in the text of your message: subscribe procaare end or visit the website at: http://www.procaare.org Please contact HDN immediately, www.hdnet.org , if you are from a teaching institution (e.g., nursing/midwifery school), and would like to integrate these discussions into your curriculum as a learning opportunity for students over the coming months.