AGC Loses 68 Workers Through HIV/AIDS

Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) Group lost 68 workers through HIV/AIDS infection between 1998 and July last year. Statistics from the AGC Hospital indicate that a total of 191 persons, including the workers, died from HIV/AIDS related diseases at Obuasi during the period.

The figures represent those captured at health facilities across the Group. However, a comprehensive disease control programme designed by the Company has reduced the prevalence rate among staff.

The Director of Medical Services, Reverend Emmanuel Kwabena Ackon told members of the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ) that in 1999, the number of workers who tested positive dropped to 60 and then to 45 in 2000. In 2001, this number went down to 41 and down again to 16 in July last year.

Nationwide prevalence rate is 3.3 per cent while the prevalence rate in the mining areas is estimated at between four to five percent. The journalists were on a tour of AGC facilities in the town to ascertain the company's impact on the various communities where they operate.

Rev. Ackon explained that the number of people with the infection could be higher, as is usual with all mining communities, and the figures only represented those in the hospital's records.