Companies raise money for HIV infected workers

A group of five firms in the Central African Republic (CAR), known as the Groupe Kamach, have agreed to hold a fund-raising drive to buy HIV/AIDS drugs for their infected employees. The owner of the group, Joseph Kamach, said his firm of 1,000 people was badly affected by the disease. "A great number of my staff died of it," he told IRIN on Saturday. During a meeting on 16 August with 50 female employees, a committee was set up to inform personnel on the subject of HIV/AIDS. "Its mission is to prod people into taking blood tests to determine their [HIV] status," he said. The committee would also collect money from the infected and non-infected personnel. This should be made easier by the considerably reduced cost of HIV/AIDS drugs, now at 25,000 francs CFA (about US $39) he said. A report UNAIDS-CAR produced in June showed that 12 percent the CAR's population is HIV-positive, making it the most-affected nation in central Africa.