City staff to get
free HIV treatment
By Nangamso Mabindla
13 November 2007
HIV-POSITIVE Buffalo City employees will now have access to free treatment.
This is thanks to the City's partnership with the DaimlerChrysler-Border Kei Chamber of Business Health Trust Siyakhana Project. The project was set up to help small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in Buffalo City, the Eastern Cape and the rest of the country, manage HIV and Aids.
The project, which was launched in 2005, is funded by DaimlerChrysler, the car maker, and the German Development Agency.
Denise Casoojee, the principal occupational health and safety practitioner, said that the municipality welcomed the partnership as it would enable HIV-positive employees and three of their dependants each to get free treatment.
"We greatly value that our HIV-positive colleagues and three of their dependants are able to access treatment through the Siyakhana Project. The general practitioner network allows them greater confidentiality and set appointment times as opposed to waiting in queues. [Buffalo City] derives satisfaction knowing that our staff can access such high levels of treatment," she said.
Discussing how Buffalo City employees qualified for treatment under an initiative that was aimed at smaller enterprises, Casoojee said that even though the City had its own medical scheme, some employees did not have medical aid.
"There are people who choose not to have medical aids in the lower ranks. We took this minority group and they qualified for the project. Currently, there are 25 HIV-positive employees accessing treatment through the project."
To ensure sustainability, 10 Buffalo City clinics would be used as voluntary counselling and testing, or VCT, pilot sites so that even if the project did not continue, these clinics would continue treating HIV-positive people.
Despite this precaution, Siyakhana project manager Simeon Odugwu said that the project would be expanding in 2008.
"This is thanks to continued funding and [memoranda of understanding] between the project and the Eastern Cape department of health for the provision of antiretroviral treatment for people who access the programme.
"We are excited by the signing of the [memorandum of understanding] because it signifies a deeper co-operation between ourselves and the government," Odugwu said.
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