Public health
The main public health challenges facing our company and our employees are HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), diabetes and hypertension.
We recognise that HIV/AIDS has serious medical, social and economic implications for employees and their families, for communities and for our company. We manage HIV/AIDS as an integrated response which encompasses prevention through to care and support. We offer comprehensive health services for HIV/AIDS care and HIV prevention to all employees and offer free voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) to all our employees and contractors. For more information on our multi-faceted approach to HIV/AIDS and the three pillars of our HIV/AIDS strategy of preventative, curative and rehabilitative care, go to our Sustainability report 2023.
TB remains the most common opportunistic infection for people living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, and is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in our HIV positive employees. Active TB screening forms part of our annual medical examination and we provide comprehensive treatment for those infected. For more information on our approach to TB, go to our Sustainability report 2023.
While we are recognised leaders for our TB and HIV/AIDS programmes in the workplace and have made substantial progress, there are still significant challenges to overcome.
Hypertension, diabetes and associated cardiac diseases are increasing rapidly among our workforce and we recognise the importance of influencing diet and lifestyle in the effective prevention of these diseases.