SOUTH AFRICA: No AIDS drugs for low income workers - Anglo American

South African mining corporation, Anglo American, cannot afford to supply antiretroviral drugs to all its HIV/AIDS infected workers in South Africa, the company's medical department announced this week.

In a 'Financial Times' report, Brian Brink, Anglo American's senior vice-president (medical), was reported as saying the company's 14,000 senior staff would receive antiretroviral treatment as part of their medical insurance, but that the provision of drug treatment for lower income employees was too expensive. About 21 percent of Anglo American's employees in South Africa are HIV-positive. "The obstacles to providing therapy are huge. The more I look at it, it's not possible," Brink was quoted as saying. Medicines at cost were too expensive, strict adherence to drug protocols uncertain and the extent of a company's obligation to treat current and ex-employees and their dependants too daunting, he said. An antiretroviral treatment costs about US $162 a month.

Anglo American hopes to launch a pilot project in partnership with pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, before the end of the year. For wider distribution of drugs to employees and their dependants, Anglo American was reported as saying it would have to seek additional funding from international donor agencies. GlaxoSmithKline announced this week that it would give the rights to its latest HIV/AIDS medicines to a local generic producer to encourage greater access to treatment.

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