NAMIBIA: Business can do better on AIDS - expert

Namibian businesses have the power to address HIV/AIDS in the workplace, according to Brian Brink, vice-president of the international mining giant, Anglo American.

Brink, who is also a board member of the Private Sector Delegation to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, noted that the excuse of cost-to-company was wearing thin, as donor funds for workplace interventions were now more easily available.

The local Namibian newspaper quoted him as saying, "The target for private-sector businesses should be that 100 percent of their workforce know their HIV status. There is no excuse for us to be sitting with this burden of disease. Namibia has a manageable population of only 1.8 million and can stop AIDS."

Namibia has an adult AIDS prevalence rate of 21.3 percent.

Theme (s): Care/Treatment - PlusNews,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]