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AIDS-related disability claims affecting businesses

    JOHANNESBURG

    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.

    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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