The East African Community Affairs ministry on Tuesday launched a new HIV/AIDS work place policy aimed at addressing the challenges faced by employees living with the disease.
Edith Mwanje, the permanent secretary ministry of East African community affairs says it’s time for workers in the line ministry to sit down and realistically talk about HIV.
The policy seeks to apply principles including confidentiality of employees’ HIV status not to be disclosed to employers, respect without discrimination and equal employment treatment regardless of one’s status.
Others are openness and honesty by management in dealings that concern HIV positive workers and timely action so as not to cause any adverse effects on employees affected by HIV/AIDS.
Mwanje says the 2011 policy also covers the issue of human rights and how they can promote and protect infected employee rights.
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Dr. Bogere Paul of the Ministry of public service says the policy is needed to cope with the impact of HIV/AIDS in the public sector through prevention and mitigation.
According to the HIV/AIDS indicator survey 2011, the prevalence rate stands at 6.7 from 6.4 percent.
Statistics from the ministry of health show that in 2000, ninety thousand Ugandans died of HIV/AIDS which number went down to 60,000 in 2011.
Bogere now says it is the mandate of every ministry in Uganda to implement the Uganda Public Service HIV/AIDS policy in order to address the problem in civil service.
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Some activities to be implemented include providing first aid, treating opportunistic infections and providing anti-retroviral therapy, placing condoms in washrooms and integrating costs of treatment, care and support into staff allowances.
