| Business |
Business to the rescue
WE have had ample reason to decry the
slowness of the response to HIV and AIDS.
Eleven years after the medical miracle that is the anti-retroviral
“cocktail” of medications, very few of our people have been able
to access the drugs.
One of the main factors has been the cost of the drugs that are
well beyond the ability of Papua New Guineans to pay.
A second reason has been our inability to calculate how many HIV
and AIDS sufferers there are in our country.
Geography, the parlous condition of the network of clinics and the
uncertainties associated with determining the causes of death have
all played a part in this process.
And then prescribing and dealing with HIV and AIDS patients
requires specialist skills and we have had “insufficient qualified
people” to fill these roles.
The cost of drugs is a contentious issue.
PNG confirmed that HIV and AIDS were present in the country nearly
20 years ago.
The breakthrough medical technology occurred 11 years ago. Only in
the past two or three years has there been the political will to
get anti-retroviral drugs on shore and into our hospitals.
Other developing countries long ago explored the possibilities of
securing the generic drugs from countries such as India and many
of their HIV and AIDS victims have been granted a new lease of
life as a result.
The geographical constraints are very real, as are the attribution
of causes of deaths among remote patients.
A patient dies apparently of tuberculosis or a severe respiratory
infection. Naturally that’s what the records will confirm – and it
will be true as far as it goes.
What the records fail to acknowledge is that the patient was HIV
positive.
It was probably his weakened immune system that was the ultimate
cause of death, a system unable to combat the invasion of TB into
his body. It would be more accurate to say that he died from the
HIV virus.
Determining HIV and AIDS infection and mortality numbers under
such circumstances is akin to playing blind man’s bluff.
The final concern has been to establish a cadre of doctors and
medical health experts who is sufficiently well equipped to handle
this pandemic. Its reassuring to know that teams of doctors and
others throughout PNG are now receiving the necessary training.
So what’s been happening on the other side of the coin?
Some individual business houses were quick to get involved in the
awareness programmes and the attempts to prevent the growth of
infection.
The ANZ Bank was prominent, as was timber giant Rimbunan Hijau, an
enterprise that employs thousands of Papua New Guineans. These
commercial leaders were joined by a host of other smaller retail
and commercial enterprises.
PNG owes a very great deal to their involvement, not least because
it also involves the commitment of their staff.
Most of these business houses have made significant donations to
the National AIDS Council and to other health authorities.
Others have carefully developed their own approach to HIV and AIDS
in the workplace according to the parameters of their own
industries and trades.
But there has been little attempt to bring all these worthwhile
initiatives under one umbrella.
Enter Businesses Against HIV/AIDS (BAHA), which brings together
some of the industry, commercial and retail heavyweights in the
community.
Live-wire figure Rod Mitchell, regarded by many as the saviour of
Nasfund and of their savings, came up with the idea.
Nasfund is bringing together business houses in an effort to form
a business coalition to fight the disease.
Lae was the scene of the latest BAHA development, with
long-standing PNG construction and steel company Hornibrooks NGI
offering the new organisation office space in our second city.
From that office, BAHA will attack the HIV and AIDS issues in the
industrial city.
A Hornibrooks spokesperson said that awareness drives would be
conducted targeting workers and business houses from the new
office, while Lae Chamber of Commerce and Industry leader Allan
McLay said the involvement of Nasfund was welcome because of its
transparency and outstanding track record.
We support the new organisation and hope that it will have a
significant input in the battle against this disease.
 
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