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The Business Costs |
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The Asia-Pacific region can learn from the experience of businesses in African countries, which have dealt with the consequences of the HIV/AIDS epidemic for over ten years. ‘Don't make the same mistakes in India we made in South Africa, we saw this coming but the first reaction of our business was that it wasn't our problem, that it wasn't threatening us now, that we'd let the government sort it out’. Brian Brink, Medical Director, South African mining company Anglo American Over 25% of Anglo American's workforce is now HIV positive. The South African mining company has since implemented comprehensive HIV/AIDS programs and policies, but this has come too late to save some of its valuable workers. The Asian Development Bank and UNAIDS have predicted that, without an intensive scale-up of HIV interventions, 10 million adults and children in the Asia-Pacific region will become newly infected between 2004 and 2010. The annual financial cost to the region is estimated to be $US17.5 (AUD 24 billion). Source: ADB/ UNAIDS Study, Asia- Pacific's Opportunity: Investing to Avert An HIV/ AIDS Crisis, July 2004. |
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The Asia Pacific Business Coalition on AIDS (APBCA) is leading the region's private sector response to HIV and AIDS. Launched by former President Bill Clinton in February 2006, APBCA and its network is working with businesses to limit the impact of HIV and AIDS in the Asia Pacific region. Read more.
