Young and productive workers lost to HIV/AIDS

Zambia is losing millions of dollars spent on training programmes as HIV/AIDS continues to deplete its qualified manpower, a top government official has said. Minister of Finance and National Planning, Ng'andu Magande, said the effects of the pandemic on the civil service had also led to stagnated human resource development. A local newspaper, The Times of Zambia, quoted him as saying: "We have lost many young and economically productive workers. A large number of the productive workers are regularly sick because of AIDS-related illnesses. All of this has a negative impact on the performance of the civil service in terms of productivity." Magande said with the recent acquisition of US $42 million from the World Bank and $192 million from the Global AIDS Fund, the government was busy putting measures in place to address the problem.