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Employees of South Africa's largest mining company, Anglo American, have been slow to take up the company's offer of free anti-AIDS drugs.
Anglo's chief medical officer, Dr Brian Brink, said only about a quarter of those needing drugs had come forward, despite encouraging results from workers already on the company's HIV/AIDS treatment programme. He noted that 94 percent of workers who took AIDS drugs were well and back at work.
A local newspaper, Business Day, quoted Brink as saying: "I wish I knew why. People talk about fear, denial and stigma, but I don't think they're the main reasons. I think it's simply that people don't know they are positive."
Brink warned that those workers who left treatment until the last minute risked adverse reactions and a reduced efficacy of the antiretroviral drugs
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