Attitude change, treatment plans slice AIDS claims

Improved HIV/AIDS treatment plans and AIDS policies in the workplace have helped return more people to work, enlarging productivity, according to findings by life insurer Old Mutual. The company said that its latest figures showed that the duration of AIDS-related claims had remained short, in contrast to the early 2000s, as a result of more people returning to work relative to those who died.

Old Mutual Corporate group assurance actuary Neil Parkin said that last year more than half of claims that ended saw the claimant returning to work. He said people might incorrectly assume that the reduction in the duration of AIDS-related claims was simply due to a high death rate among claimants, but in fact, they were at least five years behind the trend. Between 2003 and 2004 more than 65 percent of AIDS claims ended due to the death of the claimants, he added, while last year only 20 percent of claims ended as a result of death. Compared with the average and long-term disability income claimants, who were paid for between six and more than 10 years, the duration of an average AIDS claim was now just one-and-a-half years, he said.

Parkin said that besides the obvious benefit to the patient, AIDS claimants returning to work could reflect a boost to an employer's productivity and a reduction in staff turnover. He said that continued treatment would not only see claimants being able to work again, but would reduce absence once the claimant returned Parkin.

According to Stellenbosch University's Bureau of Economic Research 2001 estimates cited in Frikkie Booysens's report, "The Impact of HIV/AIDS on the South African Economy: A Review of Current Evidence", the total economic productivity was reduced by 21 percent in workers with full-blown AIDS. These estimates were based on a 21 percent reduction in the country's total labour force at the time, because of AIDS.

The ING Barings statistics, cited in the same report, showed that the public sector contributed between R3 000 and R4 500 for each AIDS patient annually in 2000. But the South Africa Yearbook of 2010/11, published by the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), shows that the country's HIV prevalence was stabilising after the early 2000s peak. The GCIS said this was because South Africa had the largest antiretroviral (ARV) therapy programme in the world.

The chief director for HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections in the Department of Health, Dr Thobile Mbengashe, said that more than 1.38 million people were receiving the ARV drugs from public hospitals. This meant that more than 80 percent of people eligible for treatment were now getting it. Mbengashe said R6.2 billion was spent by the provinces on HIV/AIDS, 70 percent of which was for treatment alone.

The National Treasury said the total annual spending on HIV/AIDS in the country was about R20bn. Mbengashe said the biggest impact was the reduction in the number of deaths and of the disease burden, enabling people to go to work again. He added that a substantial decrease in deaths attributable to HIV/AIDS was witnessed, and another major impact was the saving in hospitalisation costs.

In 2006, just more than 500 000 deaths were recorded nationally and 353 000 of those were attributed to the pandemic. In 2011, 591 000 deaths were recorded, with only 257 000 a result of HIV/AIDS. For females, life expectancy has improved from 55.5 years to 56.2 years, while that of males has risen to 52 years from 50.6 years.

Londiwe Buthelezi: Business Report, 23 January 2012