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An international mining company’s decision to provide free Aids treatment to its employees has begun to show a clear business benefit.
Anglo American says preliminary analysis has already shown falls of between 25 per cent and 40 per cent in absenteeism among workers on its antiretroviral therapy programme. And it predicts the programme’s main impact is yet to come, with the biggest falls expected between 2008 and 2011.
The group has asked one of its subsidiaries, Aurum Health Research, to carry out a three-year assessment of the economic benefits, to both the company and society at large, of providing the treatment.
Its initial cost-benefit analysis indicates that the overall cost of the programme has dropped, largely because of falling ART costs and economies of scale. After a full year of implementation the cost, including administration time, use of company infrastructure, monitoring and support as well as drugs, laboratory and clinical staff time, averaged R1,365 ($215, £117) per patient per month. Overall costs fell by 18 per cent in the first 18 months, although they varied considerably across the group.
Anglo’s findings may encourage more companies to follow suit, on the basis that it is both the ‘right thing to do’ and in their interests. A number of organizations, including the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, and the Global Business Coalition on Aids, have consistently said that helping staff and their families affected by HIV/Aids has a number of business benefits, among them less absenteeism, higher rates of retention of key staff and a stronger local economy.
By the end of December 2004, 2456 Anglo American employees with HIV/Aids were on free drug treatment as part of a programme first offered by the company in November 2002. Although 19 per cent have been lost from the programme for a variety of reasons, of the 1965 employees remaining on ART, 94 per cent are ‘completely well and able to carry out their normal work’. Anglo American estimates that without ART at least a third of these would already have died from Aids.
The group has now set a target for voluntary counselling and HIV/Aids testing of 50 per cent of employees by the end of 2005 and 75 per cent by 2007. The take-up rate at the end of 2004 was 21 per cent.
In addition to free treatment, Anglo tries to educate employees and their families about Aids, and encourages HIV-positive employees to enrol in wellness programmes designed to keep them from progressing to the next stage of the disease for as long as possible. Nearly 5000 employees have so far enrolled on such programmes, and the group has set a target of 10,000 by the end of this year.
The willingness of workers to come forward for treatment varies greatly across the group, partly because of stigma associated with the condition but also due to differing levels of commitment shown by local managers.
More than 33,400 of the 139,300 Anglo employees in eastern and southern Africa are thought to be HIV-positive.
Anglo American says preliminary analysis has already shown falls of between 25 per cent and 40 per cent in absenteeism among workers on its antiretroviral therapy programme. And it predicts the programme’s main impact is yet to come, with the biggest falls expected between 2008 and 2011.
The group has asked one of its subsidiaries, Aurum Health Research, to carry out a three-year assessment of the economic benefits, to both the company and society at large, of providing the treatment.
Its initial cost-benefit analysis indicates that the overall cost of the programme has dropped, largely because of falling ART costs and economies of scale. After a full year of implementation the cost, including administration time, use of company infrastructure, monitoring and support as well as drugs, laboratory and clinical staff time, averaged R1,365 ($215, £117) per patient per month. Overall costs fell by 18 per cent in the first 18 months, although they varied considerably across the group.
Anglo’s findings may encourage more companies to follow suit, on the basis that it is both the ‘right thing to do’ and in their interests. A number of organizations, including the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, and the Global Business Coalition on Aids, have consistently said that helping staff and their families affected by HIV/Aids has a number of business benefits, among them less absenteeism, higher rates of retention of key staff and a stronger local economy.
By the end of December 2004, 2456 Anglo American employees with HIV/Aids were on free drug treatment as part of a programme first offered by the company in November 2002. Although 19 per cent have been lost from the programme for a variety of reasons, of the 1965 employees remaining on ART, 94 per cent are ‘completely well and able to carry out their normal work’. Anglo American estimates that without ART at least a third of these would already have died from Aids.
The group has now set a target for voluntary counselling and HIV/Aids testing of 50 per cent of employees by the end of 2005 and 75 per cent by 2007. The take-up rate at the end of 2004 was 21 per cent.
In addition to free treatment, Anglo tries to educate employees and their families about Aids, and encourages HIV-positive employees to enrol in wellness programmes designed to keep them from progressing to the next stage of the disease for as long as possible. Nearly 5000 employees have so far enrolled on such programmes, and the group has set a target of 10,000 by the end of this year.
The willingness of workers to come forward for treatment varies greatly across the group, partly because of stigma associated with the condition but also due to differing levels of commitment shown by local managers.
More than 33,400 of the 139,300 Anglo employees in eastern and southern Africa are thought to be HIV-positive.
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