Margherita Licata and Kofi Amekudzi, Technical Specialists ILOAIDS
The more we learn about the challenges of responding to the Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa, the easier it becomes to discern parallels to the HIV epidemic — another health crisis , which we’ve been battling for over 30 years now. The HIV response has some valuable lessons for the way we confront the disease in general, particularly in the workplace. Here’s an example.
About four years ago, we were working in southern Malawi with the ILO Programme for HIV/AIDS on a project targeting workers at the Lujeri Tea Estate. Though the rate of new infections has slowed, Malawi still has some of the highest HIV infection rates in the world, affecting one in every four people who lives there.
