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Economy affected by AIDS pandemic - government

    JOHANNESBURG
    Ethiopia's HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (HAPCO) has expressed concern over the "alarming growth" of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Head of the HAPCO advocacy and coordination department, Teklu Belay, said increases in worker absenteeism caused by the disease were having a negative impact on the country's economy. Belay was quoted by Reuters as saying: "Studies indicate that due to HIV/AIDS infections, employees in the country's workplaces were absenting themselves between 30 to 240 days annually." HAPCO did not provide statistics on HIV/AIDS prevalence or mortality rates, but estimated that approximately 1,000 people in Ethiopia were contracting HIV each day.

    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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