Mining giant to provide AIDS drugs

Mining giant Anglo American on Tuesday said it will pay for anti-AIDS drugs for its workers as part of its expanded HIV/AIDS strategy. Anglo said offering anti-retroviral treatment (ART) to HIV positive workers would prolong their working lives and contain future AIDS-related costs. Around 4.7 million South Africans are living with HIV/AIDS, or around one in every nine of the population. Anglo said: "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." The corporation would consult with both trade unions and government on issues relating to implementation of ART programmes. "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," Anglo said. Anglo American's 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. The move was welcomed by lobby group the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) which said that while it was pleased with the mining conglomerate's decision, the "health of South Africans was the responsibility of the government". TAC spokesman Nathan Geffen told PlusNews: "Anglo has now set a remarkable precedent. We hope that other companies will follow Anglo's lead and begin implementing similar policies." Earlier this year, AngloGold, a subsidiary of Anglo American, said that some 28 percent of its 44,000 African workforce was infected with the HI virus. It said the cost of implementing appropriate health measures would add between US $4 and US $6, or up to 2 percent, to the cost of producing an ounce of gold. Anglo's announcement to adopt a free in-house treatment for HIV positive workers comes amid news reports that the South African Medicines Control Council was reviewing its approval of the anti-AIDS drug nevirapine, due to "serious concerns" about its effectiveness and toxicity. Geffen said: "Anglo not only challenges the private sector to supply medicine to its staff but it [Anglo] also issues a challenge to government to consider similar interventions in the public sector." In Southern Africa, Anglo American employs around 90,000 people.