Up to 30% of SA miners HIV+
2005-05-20 10:04
Special Report
The SA Medical Association says it is "gravely concerned" about HIV/Aids statistics which show a huge Aids-related leap in South Africa's death rate.
Cape Town - Up to 30% of South African miners suffer from HIV/Aids, posing one of the greatest challenges to the sector, Mineral and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Thursday.
"Individual mines have done prevalence studies and the results are not readily available - estimation is 20% to 30% of miners are affected," Mlambo-Ngcuka told parliament.
"HIV/Aids remains one of the biggest challenges in the mining industry," said Mlambo-Ngcuka, adding that there was a general commitment from the industry to deal with the pandemic.
Mines in South Africa employ more than 500 000 workers, or 4.3% of the country's total workforce, and the sector accounts for about a third of all exports.
A new report by the Medical Research Council showed that Aids was the number one killer in South Africa, with one in three people dying from the disease.
On Thursday, Mlambo-Ngcuka said mining companies had made commitments to introduce measures on preventing and monitoring HIV/Aids as well as treatment programmes.
The plans were expected to be introduced in the second quarter of this year, she said.
South Africa has the world's highest Aids caseload, with 5.3 million people, or an estimated one out of five adults living with HIV and Aids, according to United Nations figures.
President Thabo Mbeki's government began rolling out free anti-retrovirals in November 2003, under pressure from Aids activists who went to court to win an order against the government.
At least 42 000 South Africans are receiving free anti-retrovirals under the government's rollout program but the key Aids lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign, is urging the government to speed up the ARV rollout to make them available to 200 000 people by 2006.
- AFP