Reluctance to have HIV Tests at Work may Thwart Target. 5/5/10
Fewer than one in five employees at Western Cape companies that provide HIV testing have taken up the offer
By Tamar Kahn
5 May 2010
Fewer than one in five employees at Western Cape companies that provide HIV testing have taken up the offer, according to preliminary results of a South African Business Coalition Against HIV/AIDS survey.
The finding raises tough questions for the coalition , which is trying to co-ordinate the business sector’s involvement in the government’s ambitious campaign to get 15-million people to test for HIV by June next year.
The government expects the private sector to fund 2-million of those tests — some of which will take place in the workplace.
The government hopes its campaign will increase acceptance of testing and raise the proportion of HIV-positive people who know their status, encourage people who are infected to take precautions to protect others and get appropriate care before they become critically ill.
SA has an estimated 5,3-million people infected with HIV, according to the Department of Health. Yet few of them know their status; in 2008 only a quarter of South Africans had taken a test in the previous 12 months, according to the Human Sciences Research Council.
The coalition’s Western Cape business sector survey on HIV/AIDS included 204 companies from the agricultural, manufacturing, construction, retail and tourism, finance and transport sectors. It found 74% of them had a HIV /AIDS policy, and 53% offered HIV testing at the workplace. Only 17% of employees took up the offer of on-site testing.
“Anecdotal evidence suggests people are reluctant to test in familiar places,” preferring to go where they will not be recognised by friends or colleagues, said Dr Chan Makan, CEO of the Metropolitan Foundation, which conducted the survey.
Stigma was “still a huge barrier” to HIV testing at work, said the coalition’s strategic partnerships executive, Liesl Heynike. Nevertheless, some companies had managed to get testing rates of more than 80%. An increasing number of companies were finding that incorporating HIV tests in “wellness” programmes that offered a package of tests such as cholesterol and blood pressure got a better response rate than standalone HIV testing, she said.
The coalition’s draft HIV testing strategy, now out for public comment, says the business sector aims to mobilise 2-million people to know their HIV status, at an estimated cost of R500m, half of which is already committed through medical schemes.
The coalition’s CEO Brad Mears said the business sector viewed the target with caution.
“It’s extraordinarily high. It should not be interpreted as a failure if it is not achieved,” he said