A Tripartite Meeting of Experts to Develop Joint ILO/WHO Guidelines on Health Services and HIV/AIDS is taking place in ILO headquarters from 19 to 21 April.

The Meeting will consider and review the draft joint ILO/WHO guidelines on the health services and HIV/AIDS prepared jointly by the two organizations.

The ILO considers that health care is a basic human right for all, and over 100 million health-service workers are providing health-care services to women, men and children worldwide. But the provision of health services remains problematic, and substantial inefficiencies exist in the allocation of human, material and financial resources. Increasing costs and structural adjustment policies have had a negative impact on the employment and career prospects of health personnel. In addition, difficult working conditions including stress, long hours, shift work, and violence have resulted in skyrocketing health staff vacancy rates.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is an additional factor. According to the WHO, the impact of HIV/AIDS often strikes hardest where health systems are weakest, and deals a double blow. Systems that in any case cannot cope are weakened further by HIV/AIDS deaths and disability among large numbers of health personnel. The health services sector has the unique feature of having a population of workers who, in addition to providing care to patients suffering from HIV/AIDS, are at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS because of their professional responsibilities. They also face discrimination should they become infected. At the same time, a larger, well-trained health services population is needed to address the different layers of HIV/AIDS and to provide help for those infected.

Clear and coherent policies should be developed that address the prevention of HIV/AIDS specifically among health-care providers; the management and mitigation of the impact of the illness in the health services sector; and the reduction of discrimination and stigma faced by HIV/AIDS-positive health-service workers. Given that the health sector is a major employer of women, in some cases up to 80 per cent of all workers, the guidelines address the special concerns of women workers as well.

Once adopted, the joint guidelines will be disseminated by the ILO and the WHO, and social dialogue activities encouraged and facilitated to have the guidelines widely implemented.

For further information you may visit the pages of the ILO Sectoral Activities Department on this subject.