HIV in the Workplace - Page 1 of 2

HIV/AIDS In The Workplace From The Perspective Of An Occupational Medicine Practitioner - Objectives and Activities

OBJECTIVES
By the end of this module you should:
be able to reproduce an overview of the all the important issues pertaining to HIV/AIDS in the workplace, e.g. for presentation to workers and management; understand in detail the legal and state policy framework applicable to the management of HIV infected employees and those ill with AIDS. This should include an understanding of when HIV testing by employers is allowed; know what the elements are of a process to manage employees with HIV related ill health at primary care workplace level, including management of the disability process; know what questions to ask in judging the effectiveness of workplace based HIV/AIDS programmes directed at prevention.

By the end of this module you should:

be able to reproduce an overview of the all the important issues pertaining to HIV/AIDS in the workplace, e.g. for presentation to workers and management;
understand in detail the legal and state policy framework applicable to the management of HIV infected employees and those ill with AIDS. This should include an understanding of when HIV testing by employers is allowed;
know what the elements are of a process to manage employees with HIV related ill health at primary care workplace level, including management of the disability process;
know what questions to ask in judging the effectiveness of workplace based HIV/AIDS programmes directed at prevention.

ACTIVITIES:

Nil specific.

Republic of South Africa. Code of good practice: Key aspects of HIV/AIDS and employment. Department of Labour, December. 2000.
Republic of South Africa. HIV/AIDS Technical assistance guidelines. Cape Town, Department of Labour.

Integrates and expands on, with case examples, the elements of various codes, including the 2000 Code of Good Practice, and international codes aimed at preventing discrimination at work and promoting an ethos of acceptance, care and prevention. Tries also to reduce uncertainty with regard to HIV testing by the employer.
Bedhesi C, Webster CH. STD/HIV/AIDS education: its impact on new HIV infections amongst employees. Occupational Health Southern Africa 1996;2 (6).
Although there are many programme recommendations, there seem to very few studies evaluating the effectiveness of workplace prevention programmes. This is one of the few reports of the effectiveness of such programmes.

Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health (DOH) - Modules 3 – 5: Occupational Medicine & Toxicology by Prof Rodney Ehrlich & Prof Mohamed Jeebhay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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