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Preventing HIV transmission
Principle 9 of the ILO Code of Practice sets out the need for prevention at the workplace:
Section six of the ILO Code of Practice concerns 'Prevention through information and education'.
Workplace information and education programmes (...) can significantly reduce HIV-related anxiety and stigmatization, minimize disruption in the workplace, and bring about attitudinal and behavioural change.
KEY POINTS
- • There is no cure for AIDS, or vaccine for HIV - the only way to stop the spread of infection is through prevention.
- • The workplace is an ideal setting for prevention strategies. All workplaces include people at risk. Some workplaces or occupations operate in an environment that accentuates the risk of infection.
- • It is vital to:
- constantly reinforce the simple facts about HIV infection, how it is spread and not spread, and how to prevent it;
- contradict the persisting myths about HIV and AIDS, and combat superstitions and taboos related to sex;
- help people apply prevention messages to their own situation.
- • Education for prevention needs to start with information, go on to discussion, include personal risk assessment, promote behaviour change, and support it through practical means such as condom availability.
- • Information and education should be provided in a variety of forms, not relying exclusively on the written word and including distance learning where necessary. Programmes should be tailored to the needs, context and characteristics of the workforce.
- • Peer education has been found to be particularly effective, as has the involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS in the design and implementation of programmes.
- • Support may be available locally from experienced organizations and trainers: employers can help by providing a space and - more important - time so that workers can follow at least part of their training in working time.
The Code of Practice provides comprehensive guidelines about the format and components of a prevention programme.
A toolkit on behaviour change communication at the workplace will be available soon.
AIDS is not like smallpox or polio. We may not be able to eliminate it simply with a one-time
vaccination or course of shots for children, since new strains of HIV are constantly evolving.
And, unlike other communicable diseases we have encountered most often in the past, HIV is
transmitted through the most intimate and private human relationships, through sexual violence
and commercial sex and because of women’s poverty and inequality.
...We must summon the courage to talk frankly and constructively about sexuality.
We must recognize the pressures on our children to have sex that is neither safe nor loving and
provide them with information, communication skills and, yes, condoms.
Pascoal Mocumbi, Prime Minister of Mozambique
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> Go to step 7
Workers may be resistant to taking part in prevention programmes where no provisions are made for the care and support of those affected by HIV and AIDS. Making the workplace a caring environment will raise morale generally, and needn't be expensive.
Further information:
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