AIDS, business: The next RI crisis
AIDS, business: The next RI crisis
Richard Howard, Private Sector Programs, Family Health International, Jakarta
Indonesian businesses will feel the impact of HIV/AIDS more than any other segment of society. Numerous Indonesian companies have already reported production breakdowns and conflicts because employees refused to work alongside HIV positive co-workers. Thai, Indian and African based companies have noted decreases in profits from 5 percent to 30 percent due to costs associated with HIV/AIDS. Indonesian companies, however, can avoid some of these costs by taking steps now to inform employees about the risks of HIV/AIDS and the ways to avoid infection.
The Ministry of Health estimates that there are between 90,0000 and 130,000 Indonesians living with HIV. Most of these are heterosexual men in their prime working years of 20 to 40. The number of infected Indonesians will increase exponentially during the years ahead due to enabling factors including a large mobile workforce employed in resource and transportation companies, a growing commercial sex industry and extraordinarily low rates of condom usage. The Ministry estimates that between 17 and 20 million Indonesians are at direct risk of HIV infection.
The bulk of HIV/AIDS risk in Indonesia is linked to businesses that employ men who work away from home. Resource-based companies (e.g. mining, oil and gas, plantations and forestry), distribution, trucking, and shipping operations are in particular danger.
As in other parts of the world, the three "M"s -- men, mobility and money -- are the initial ingredients for large-scale epidemics. This is because men who work in remote site locations often live apart from their families, have a significant time and money on their hands, and frequently engage in commercial sex.
The Indonesian sex industry is one of the largest in Asia with approximately 300,000 female sex workers servicing over 7 million male clients. Sex workers tend to be mobile, moving from one city to another, ensuring that infections, including HIV, are spread evenly throughout the country.
Approximately, 60 percent of female sex workers carry a sexually transmitted infection such a syphilis and gonorrhea, which dramatically increases the risk of HIV transmission.
Condom usage in Indonesia is of the lowest in Asia. Less than 10 percent of Indonesian men use condoms consistently during commercial sex. Most Indonesian men who visit sex workers do not feel at risk for HIV/AIDs, according to AC Nielsen research. They assume that AIDS is something that happens to "other types of people" or that taking antibiotics or selecting partners based on physical appearance can prevent infection.
The most essential step to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS both at the national and company level is to encourage Indonesian men to change their behavior, which means either avoid non-monogamous sexual relationships or using condoms consistently.
Given that sexual behavior is difficult to control, condom promotion is the only effective and realistic prevention strategy. Political and religious sensitivities, however, have made it practically impossible to relay AIDS prevention messages through the mass media.
The central government has also been reluctant to implement a 100 percent condom usage policy, which could save millions of lives as in countries like Thailand and Cambodia. As a result, one of the few channels left to convey life saving messages to Indonesian men is through private companies.
The question remains, however, why should companies get involved in preventing HIV/AIDS for employees? The answer is simple and well demonstrated in other Asian and African countries. Aids causes huge financial and social burden on companies and national economies, and these costs can easily be avoided through simple, low cost and highly effective prevention activities.