Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report-Wed, 10 Oct 2001
---------------------------------------------
Drug Access
Anglo American Will Not Provide Majority of South African Workers
With Antiretroviral Drugs
Anglo American, a London-based natural resources conglomerate that
had said it would supply its HIV-positive South African workforce
with antiretroviral medications, announced Monday that it cannot af-
ford to give the drugs to all of its HIV-positive workers and their
spouses as promised, the Financial Times reports (Firn/Lamont, Finan-
cial Times, 10/9). The plan, which company officials estimated would
cost $4.5 million in the first year alone, was approved "in princi-
ple" last November by the Anglo board. If implemented, the plan would
have made Anglo -- which owns a 53% stake in the world's largest gold
mining company, AngloGold Ltd., and a 32% stake in diamond giant De
Beers -- the largest company in sub-Saharan Africa to provide anti-
retroviral drugs to its employees (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report,
5/7). Anglo American's Vice President for Medical Operations Brian
Brink said that the company would provide its 14,000 senior staff
members with the drugs as part of their medical insurance packages,
but said that extending that coverage to all employees would be too
expensive. "The obstacles to providing therapy are huge. The more I
look at it, it's not possible," he said, adding that although treat-
ing HIV-positive workers could improve productivity by cutting down
on absenteeism, the company feels the "cost will be greater than the
saving." Anglo American employs 160,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa,
mostly in South Africa, where about 21% of its workforce is thought
to have HIV. Brink added that the price of the medicines was too
high, workers' adherence to the drug regimens was "uncertain" and the
"extent of the company's obligation" to treat employees and their de-
pendents was "too daunting." Anglo American plans to launch a pilot
project for senior staff in cooperation with drug maker GlaxoSmith-
Kline and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine by the
end of the year, but said that it would have to receive outside fund-
ing from donors to extend the program (Financial Times, 10/9).
MEDIA & SOCIETY WHO Releases Revised Versions of 2000 HIV/AIDS, STD
Epidemiological Fact Sheets
The World Health Organization recently released a 2000 update of its
UNAIDS/WHO epidemiological fact sheets on HIV/AIDS and sexually
transmitted diseases, according to the agency's Weekly Epidemiologi-
cal Record. The fact sheets contain country-specific data on HIV/AIDS
and STD prevalence and incidence and information on knowledge or be-
haviors of each country's population that can "spur or stem" the
transmission of the diseases. The papers are available for 170 coun-
tries for which serological and behavioral data was compiled. WHO's
next update of the fact sheets is due in mid-2002. The fact sheets,
available in English and French, are accessible online at the WHO Web
site ("Weekly Epidemiological Record," WHO, 10/5).
The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report is published for kaisernetwork.org,
a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, by National
Journal Group Inc. c 2001 by National Journal Group Inc. and Kaiser
Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
--
Send mail for the `AFRO-NETS' conference to `<afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org>'.
Mail administrative requests to `<majordomo@usa.healthnet.org>'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `<owner-afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org>'.