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High price of poor AIDS planning

    JOHANNESBURG

    Workplace HIV/AIDS treatment programmes in South Africa are making "catastrophic mistakes", a new report has found.

    Conducted by HIV/AIDS consulting firm FutureForesight and the Wits Health Consortium, the report claimed local businesses were doubling their AIDS programme costs.

    "The theory is that it's cheaper to treat [HIV/AIDS] than ignore it. But companies are running [treatment] programmes badly," FutureForesight consultant, Chris Barker, told the UN news service PlusNews.

    The study stresses the importance of timing. Business treatment audits reveal that while some workers were in an advanced stage of HIV/AIDS, around 60 percent should not yet have received treatment.

    "Most workers currently being treated in [South Africa] are not examples of cost saving, but examples of cost doubling - treatment plus past productivity losses," the report said.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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