Rapid assessment of the private sector response to HIV/AIDS in South Africa

This site presents the results of a survey of business responses to HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The concise version of the results are presently separately along the following subject divisions:

• prevention
• treatment and care
• surveillance and monitoring
• legal and human rights
• company strategy

Key results are:

• for prevention programmes, awareness and education programmes are most prevalent and yet 75% of the small companies have not embarked on a HIV/AIDS programme
• The provision of medical scheme benefits to staff is currently the most common provision of treatment and care provided by companies in the workplace, however, many medical plan options do not however have adequate HIV/AIDS cover
• results show very low incidence of screen testing indicating that prevalence levels and death rates have not affected the business community to levels where accurate measurement of HIV/AIDS prevalence has been warranted
• approximately half of all respondents had written a formal HIV/AIDS policy in the workplace with the majority being larger companies
• approximately 50% of companies surveyed have a formal HIV/AIDS policy indicating that almost all of these companies have included the four main elements being prevention, infection control, discrimination and confidentiality

[Adapted from authors]