In the medical world, AIDS is fairly new,

In the medical world, AIDS is fairly new, only beginning to be diagnosed in the 1980’s and just barely has it begun to be understood by doctors. It is estimated that this fatal virus affects 37 million people worldwide. Countries that are still developing are the ones hit the hardest. In South Africa alone over 5 million people are living with AIDS or are HIV positive. This large number really plays a role in how businesses in South Africa are affected. A recent study was done to understand how AIDS impacts businesses. Six companies in Botswana and South Africa were surveyed. These were large, successful companies; 4 of which were subsidiaries of transnational corporations. The companies were in a range of industries from media to mining. Employing between 500 to 35,000 people each. A voluntary survey was given out to discover how many were affected by AIDS and how it impacted the companies financially.The study found that there was a large range of percentage of people infected with AIDS and that the number heavily depended on the type of job the person held. Overall 7.9% to 29% of the employees were infected with AIDS. Companies in mining and metal processing seemed to be affected the most, with more than 2

The study sought out what HIV-infected employees were costing them. The high AIDS "tax"� in these countries effect not only the office located there but also the entire global company. These costs were not included in the estimates for the AIDS "tax"� but are worth thinking about. These high costs to the employer are a result of a lack of neglect on controlling the AIDS epidemic. Education, counseling, HIV testing and treatment are some ways that corporations can begin to get involved in the health of their employees. For one company that meant a cost of $11. There are also many indirect costs of losing an employee to AIDS. Those that did not take preventive measures will have an inflated AIDS "tax"� that may make it extremely difficult to be a profitable business. 3 percent of their employees suffering from AIDS/HIV. Extra management time will be spent trying to deal with this new problem and the manager will be pulled away from the projects they were working on. Corporations can try to keep from losing more money as a result of AIDS/HIV by preventing the disease. While there may be no cure for AIDS yet, it is known how the virus is spread so for now prevention is the best approach. On the other hand, only 14 percent of people holding supervisory or managerial jobs were infected.