AngloGold of South Africa has been administering antiretroviral therapy (ART) to workers suffering from HIV/AIDS.
The treatment is the first stage of the project announced by AngloGold and Anglo American in late 2002.
The project is aimed at understanding the challenges of providing ART to workers in the gold mining industry. It will assess the impact of ART on a patient’s capacity to carry out duties in underground conditions.
The previous months have been spent developing a laboratory, training materials, protocol, a code of ethics, and an economic study to evaluate the cost and benefits of ART.
For the project, AngloGold identified all eligible patients, that is, those individuals participating in the company’s voluntary counselling and testing programs and who are clinically advanced in the disease.
From this group, 200 people (100 from both the West Wits and Vaal River operations) were invited to participate.
At this stage, the drugs will cost R840 per patient per month, down from R1,200 estimated earlier. By April 2003, treatment will be offered to eligible patients who want it.
Prior to the inclusion of ART therapies, the managed cost estimate for the impact of HIV/AIDS was US$4-6 per ounce mined. It was estimated that the cost of failing to manage the disease would cost US$9 per oz.
— The preceding is from a bulletin published by Johannesburg-based AngloGold.
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