AIDS-related disability claims affecting businesses

South African companies are reeling from a massive upsurge in HIV/AIDS-related disability claims, a new study has found. The findings of a three-year survey of five companies by the health-risk management company, Lifeworks, said disability claims had almost doubled due to HIV/AIDS-related illnesses. Lifeworks CEO, Sean Jelley, told the local Mail and Guardian newspaper: "As HIV-positive employees progress to the symptomatic stages of the disease - leading rapidly to total incapacity and then death - the number of disability and death payouts will increase." Disability claims refer to compensation given to an employee who is no longer able to work as a result of ill-health or injury. "Increased disability and death insurance claims are the most obvious tangible evidence of the impact of HIV/AIDS in the workplace," Jelley added.