Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 8/15/2005

[Guest guest]

U N I T E D N A T I O N S

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) - 1995-2005 ten years serving the

humanitarian community

[These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENT:

1 - SENEGAL: Even when companies commit to HIV care, getting message across can

be difficult

1 - SENEGAL: Even when companies commit to HIV care, getting message across can

be difficult

RICHARD TOLL, 12 August (PLUSNEWS) - The Senegalese Sugar Company (CSS) provides

free condoms for its 7,000 workers but there are few takers, with many male

employees seeing accepting condoms as an admission of promiscuity or having a

sexually-transmitted infection.

" The workers can't bring themselves to take the condoms that are at their

disposal in the company pharmacy, " explained Boubacar Gassama, the head doctor

for CSS, the biggest industrial company in the West African country.

" When asked about it, most of them tell me that they are married. They think I'm

implying that they are leading the lives of naughty boys, " he told PlusNews in

Toll, the small town where the company is based that lies more than 500

km from the capital, Dakar.

For the last 30 years, CSS has been harvesting fields of sugar cane that stretch

along the banks of the River Senegal in the north of the country as far as the

eye can see.

For the last six years, the firm has been providing HIV/AIDS education to its

employees.

Discussion groups and workshops take place at the company's headquarters and

Gassama's surgery door is open to all -- the 4,000 full-time workers, the 3,000

seasonal workers and their wives and children.

He also goes the extra mile, heading out into the fields to talk to the sugar

cane cutters about prevention methods. But the doctor admits he has his work cut

out.

" I wanted to see the condoms disappearing like hot cakes but it's been in dribs

and drabs, " he said, opening his drawer where the unwanted contraception has

been languishing for more than a year.

" We did think about slipping condoms in with the pay slips but we were worried

about offending the sensibilities of our employees, " Gassama said.

Senegal is often cited as an African model in terms of its fight against the

disease which is ravaging the continent.

And CSS has taken its HIV education responsibilities very seriously, having

signed up to Senegal's December 2003 charter to provide care for people living

with the disease.

But there is still much reticence.

Batoura Thiaw has been working at CSS for 10 years and while he uses condoms

readily, he knows many people who won't.

" A lot of people will tell you that it's not right, " he said, adding that he's

been to some workshops where many participants didn't even believe that AIDS was

real.

In September 2004, the Senegalese Ministry of Health allowed CSS to open its own

HIV-testing centre. Gassama reckons this pilot project, if successful, could be

rolled out to companies across the country, making it easier for people to know

their HIV-status.

" I lost a lot of patients because they had to go to St Louis [the regional

capital some 110 km away] for their medical care, " he explained.

To date around 500 people have been tested. Fifteen have discovered they are

HIV-positive, most of whom are family members of employees, five of whom are

directly employed by CSS.

Of these five employees, two are single seasonal workers who came from

neighbouring countries in the region like Mali and Guinea where the HIV

prevalence rate is higher than Senegal's 2004 rate of 1.5 percent.

AIDS activists believe that the rate around the Senegal River valley may be more

than 2.5 percent, and that is borne out by the CSS data which shows a prevalence

rate of 2.8 percent among its employees.

According to Gassama, two employees, one of whom is retired, are currently

receiving treatment at Toll's hospital which, for the last month, has

been offering anti-retroviral drugs (ARV).

Meanwhile back at the company, there is no chance of stigmatisation as no-one

has the slightest idea who they are except the doctor.

" We stick rigorously to the confidentiality ... even the administration people

don't even know who they are, " Gassama said.

[ENDS]

We have sent this message from a no-reply address to avoid bounced messages into

our general email folder. Please do not hesitate to contact us at

Mail@... with any comments or questions you may have

[This Item is Delivered to the English Service of the UN's IRIN

humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views

of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or

to change your keywords, contact e-mail: Irin@... or Web:

http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post

this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by

commercial sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2005

IRIN Contacts:

PLUSNEWS

Tel: +27 11 895-1900

Fax: +27 11 784-6759

Email: Mail@...

To make changes to or cancel your subscription visit:

http://www.irinnews.org/subscriptions

Subscriber: AIDS treatments