Human Resources: Executive Summary:The AIDS Epidemic

The AIDS epidemic marked its 25th anniversary in 2006, but there is little reason to celebrate the grim milestone. Globally the spread of HIV/AIDS remains a major health issue, and efforts to impede it have met with mixed success. At the end of 2005 an estimated 38.6 million people in the world were infected with HIV, and 25 million had died of AIDS. In the U.S. the number of people infected reached a landmark one million in 2005, and most of those newly diagnosed were in their 30s - their most productive years as workers. Although there have been major breakthroughs in the use of antiretroviral drugs to halt the epidemic, the development of a vaccine remains elusive.

The United Nations established UNAIDS in 1996 to mount a global response to HIV/AIDS. Although the initiative has often been controversial and critics have decried the lack of adequate funding, there has been some measured progress since 2001. In a 2006 report on the global AIDS epidemic, the UN noted that 126 countries are now tracking data and submitting reports and that many have seen progress. A strategy called "3 by 5" was passed by the General Assembly in 2003 with a goal of providing treatment to three million people by 2005. The 3 by 5 initiative has been responsible for an impressive increase in treatment for people in low- and middle-income countries. Most important, UN funding has increased, with $8.3 billion (U.S. dollars) allocated in 2006, compared with $266 million allocated for the years 1996-2001.

Globally, women make up nearly half of the 40 million people who have HIV, and the rate of infection is climbing at an alarming rate. In the U.S. the infection rate for women rose by 15% from 1999 to 2003 while the rate for men rose by just 1%. The long-held misconception of some heterosexual women that they are not at risk for HIV/AIDS is a contributor to the rise in infections in women. The CDC reports that in the years between 1999 and 2002 half of the HIV infections acquired through heterosexual contact were acquired by black women.

Children are still among the most vulnerable. In 2006 less than 10% of the world's pregnant women who were HIV-positive were getting the drugs needed to prevent passing the condition on to their babies, said the UN. And of the estimated 660,000 children who need treatment with antiretroviral drugs, only 40,000 will receive it. The number of AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa has reached 12 million. In the U.S. a total of 9,443 children under the age of 13 have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic. However, the rate of acquisition for U.S. children has been dropping every year since 2001.

Government response to the epidemic is controversial in the U.S. The death rate has declined each year between 1995 and 2002, but the reasons are unclear. The use of antiretroviral drugs and increased testing may be part of the cause of the decline. But the "abstinence only" approach has its critics.

Although stigma still abounds in the workplace, some corporations are taking a proactive approach. Realizing that business success depends on a healthy pool of workers, especially in countries that have been hard hit by the epidemic, employers are providing benefits to workers who have HIV/AIDS and their families. In the U.S., one in six large worksites and one in 15 small worksites have had an employee with HIV/AIDS. And because HIV/AIDS has become a manageable chronic condition, employers have developed policies to get their employees back to work after short-term- and long-term-disability leave.

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