The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Fighting AIDS is the biggest challenge: Mahishi

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Sunday, Nov 04, 2007
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Karnataka - Bangalore

Fighting AIDS is the biggest challenge: Mahishi

Staff Reporter

— PHOTO: K. Murali Kumar

EXCHANGE OF VIEWS: S.M. Afsar, Technical Specialist (HIV/AIDS, South Asia), SRO, ILO; B.L. Sridhar, Principal Secretary, Department of Labour, and S.N. Agarwal, FICCI Karnataka State Council president, at a workshop on HIV/AIDS in Bangalore on Saturday.

BANGALORE: Factories and industries with huge workforces need to have an AIDS prevention and treatment programme in place to ensure that it does not impact on businesses, S. Mohammed Afsar, technical specialist HIV-AIDS, International Labour Organisation (South Asia), said here on Saturday.

In a presentation at a State-level workshop on “HIV-AIDS Risk and Vulnerability of Industry in Karnataka”, Mr. Afsar said industries with large workforces could no longer afford to ignore the AIDS pandemic. The loss of national GDP because of AIDS was estimated to be 1 per cent by 2015and production losses were likely to be 12 per cent.

According to an ILO study on the impact of AIDS on Singareni Collieries Company Ltd, in Andhra Pradesh, the company spent Rs. 65 lakh in five years as compensation to 29 employees declared unfit for employment because of AIDS. The company had 311 employees living with HIV, and if they reached the stage of being unfit for work, it would cost the company Rs. 9.33 crore. “But making a provision for treatment for these employees would cost Rs. 5.6 crore in 10 years.”

The Chief Secretary, P.B.Mahishi, who delivered the valedictory address, said Karnataka was known as a State with high prevalence of HIV-AIDS and this should be considered as a sign of how the State Government was fighting the killer disease.

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