Business Needs to Play a Role in Fighting HIV
To Our ReadersThe Moscow Times welcomes letters to the editor. Letters for publication should be signed and bear the signatory’s address and telephone number. Letters to the editor should be sent by fax to (7-495) 232-6529, by e-mail to oped@imedia.ru, or by post. The Moscow Times reserves the right to edit letters.Email the Opinion Page EditorRussian business leaders are very aware of the negative role that alcohol and drug abuse play on the workplace, but the potential threat that HIV poses to the strength of the private sector is not as high on the corporate agenda. It should be.
The spread of AIDS should be a concern to all of us. Russia has the highest number of HIV-positive cases in Europe. Failure to address this problem could significantly hamper the ability of companies to effectively operate in the highly competitive global marketplace.
Corporations can protect themselves by integrating education and prevention into workplace health care programs. The number of companies with workplace policies on HIV has almost tripled over the past two years, but more needs to be done. Only 15 percent of Russian companies have initiated AIDS prevention programs, and only 10 percent have adopted special policies protecting the rights of HIV-positive employees.
Today, there are more than 300 governmental and nongovernmental AIDS prevention projects in Russia. Most of these initiatives, however, are targeted at either students or other risk groups. Very few of them address the adult working population.
Although many companies have taken action to protect their employees’ health and some even support community initiatives, it’s clear that we have more work ahead of us to convince business leaders that AIDS poses a direct and serious threat to their work force.
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Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 11:43 pm under