HIV and AIDS in the workplace

---

Health care workers are at high risk for this type of exposure.

HIV can be transmitted from an infected mother to her unborn child before or during birth, or through breastfeeding. Studies indicate infection takes place across the placenta. Therefore, a Cesarean section delivery does not prevent the transmission of HIV from an infected mother to her infant. Some reports indicate that HIV can be transmitted through heart, pancreas, kidney, liver and bone transplants, and by artificial insemination.

HIV and AIDS in the workplace

All organs are screened for HIV antibodies before transplantation. The transmission of HIV occurs only when the virus enters the bloodstream. Casual contact with a person who has HIV does not pose a risk. Several studies indicate that sharing telephones, swimming pools, toilets or other household items and facilities with people infected with HIV poses no risk. The virus is not transmitted during the preparation or serving of food and beverages. The virus is also not known to travel through air or to be transmitted by mosquitoes or other insects. Some studies show HIV transmission did not occur after bites from patients infected with the HIV unless the skin is broken.

This fact suggests that transmission of HIV through contact with saliva alone is unlikely. There is no fixed period between the first contact with HIV and the development of the disease. Signs and symptoms resulting from infection with HIV develop in stages. Many infected individuals may have no symptoms for several years. But others may develop symptoms within three years from the time of infection.

Symptoms of HIV infection are fever, swollen lymph glands in the neck and armpits, sweating, aches, fatigue, unexplained weight loss and diarrhea. Within eight years, about 50 percent of all infected people develop specific conditions categorized as AIDS. These conditions include a lung disease called "pneumocystis carinii pneumonia," skin tumours called "Kaposi's sarcoma," fungal and viral infections such as candidiasis and herpes zoster, and severe diarrhea. Some AIDS patients also suffer from dementia resulting in problems with memory and thinking. AIDS patients are prone to various infections of the brain, just as they suffer from an unusually high number of cancers, bacterial and viral infections of other parts of the body.

Doctors use laboratory tests to confirm HIV infection. These tests determine if the blood contains particular antibodies that result from contact with the virus. They do not identify who among a group of infected individuals will develop the disease. These diseases overcome the weakened immune system and are responsible for the high death rate among AIDS patients. Individuals infected with HIV have been receiving improved care and newer and more effective treatment including prophylaxis. There are many antiretroviral drugs available. But so far, these treatments can only slow or suppress the virus, not eliminate it.

Where ever there is the possibility of contact with blood in the workplace, workers should take precautions to prevent contact with the skin, eyes or mucous membranes e. Routine Practices are recommended to prevent the spread of HIV in the workplace. Routine practices are based on the principle that all blood, body fluids, secretions, and excretions except sweat, non-intact skin, and mucous membranes, unless they contain visible blood, may contain transmissible infectious agents. Steps involve using protective clothing such as gloves, gowns or aprons, masks and protective eye wear when dealing with people's blood and other blood-contaminated body fluids such as semen and vaginal secretions.

They also do not apply to saliva except in dentistry where saliva is likely to be contaminated with blood. Hand washing after contact with blood, blood-contaminated body fluids and soiled items is also recommended to reduce the risk of infection. The best approach to most diseases is to prevent their occurrence - occupationally-related diseases are no exception. In the case of HIV, prevention is the only cure. The decision to begin a post-exposure prophylaxis PEP for HIV infection is based on the judgment of a health care professional and should be a joint decision with the exposed worker.

PEP often involves taking a combination of 2 or 3 antiretroviral drugs for about 4 weeks. The PEP should begin as soon as possible, as it may be less effective if started more than 72 hours after exposure. The occupational groups listed below risk exposure to HIV in the workplace. The table that follows suggests preventive measures for these groups. For many situations, using all protective barriers listed in the table is not necessary, but workplaces should always make them available in case of emergency response scenarios.

Surgeons, nurses and nurses' aides should take precautions to avoid needlestick injuries, cuts with sharp instruments and exposure through skin lesions to potentially infectious blood and body fluids.

These people continuously handle infectious samples. Doctors, in diagnosing HIV patients, carry out physical examinations and collect blood samples. Laboratory technicians analyze potentially infected samples. Ambulance workers are potentially at risk because they attend accidents and fatalities. Ambulance workers perform first aid on individuals for whom no medical information is available.

Blood contact is a possibility for workers when removing injured people from the scene of an accident. Dental workers are exposed daily to the blood and saliva of patients. Precautionary measures should be adopted because of possible exposure to HIV, and because the mouth can be the vehicle for the transmission of many infectious diseases.

Embalming the bodies of persons with a HIV infection presents a risk because HIV can live for hours in a deceased body. These workers attend accident scenes where they might be exposed to HIV through blood contact with skin cuts or scratches. These workers risk exposure to HIV when cleaning blood spills or when giving first aid where there is a possibility of blood contact. A particular concern that correctional service workers share with police is dealing with violent people.

Language selection

Workers bitten by prisoners or suspects require prompt medical attention. Bites frequently result in infection with organisms other than HIV. Cleaning staff risk exposure when cleaning up spills of blood or other body fluids. Cleaning staff need to know how to use protective clothing and proper cleaning techniques. All cleaning equipment used to clean spills of body fluids should be kept in a restricted area and should not be used in any other area of the workplace.

Launderers are exposed to potentially contaminated linen. All laundry should be bagged and labelled as possibly infectious if there was contact with any person with an infectious disease. Incinerator attendants in health care facilities risk exposure to HIV while disposing of infectious waste.

HIV and AIDS in the UN Workplace

These workers are at risk especially if an autopsy is necessary when a patient with a HIV infection dies. Add a badge to your website or intranet so your workers can quickly find answers to their health and safety questions. Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy, currency and completeness of the information, CCOHS does not guarantee, warrant, represent or undertake that the information provided is correct, accurate or current.

In most parts of the world including Nigeria, the proportion of the private sector economy is larger than the public sector hence the labour force in the private sector is always larger than the public sector [ 8 ]. Also, it is not a strange development that majority of the employers of labour were males. Gender inequity has been a perennial problem worldwide [ 9 ].

In Nigeria, few females have the capita to set up private businesses that can hire two or more employees. A large majority of the policy makers in the public sector were males too. This could be a result of the educational gap between male and female with the male being comparatively more educated than the female and so were able to secure employment in the public sector as senior officers or rise quickly to the managerial positions.

However, this trend or pattern is hope to change soon as the females are increasingly becoming as educated as the males in line with the global trend on gender mainstreaming [ 10 ].

HIV/AIDS and the Workplace (Caribbean)

Slightly more than half of the participants were beneficiaries of higher education. Higher education is pivotal to appointment or promotion to management level to function as a policy maker especially in the public sector. Special skills in decision-making and management of resources require some tertiary education. Even business organisations now require skilful, efficient and effective hands with tertiary education especially at the managerial level.

Awareness about the existence and the possibilities that a healthy looking person can harbour HIV was high among respondents. Majority of respondents across the private and public sectors exhibited both positive and negative intentions in their responses. For instance, majority of the employers in the private and public sectors were of the opinion that a staff living with HIV and AIDS should not be invited to attend a social gathering of this organisation involving other workers and visitors.

Health education programme in workplaces should target these intentions. The virus is not transmitted through social contact; discriminatory practice could further fuel the spread of the disease condition. The negative actions could be the result of false beliefs and poor knowledge of the disease condition.

In some cultures or organisations where insufficient knowledge of the disease existed, PLWHAs were restricted from touching individuals, or sharing things with family members or co-workers for fear of losing honour and social standing. There could be instances when PLWHAs will not be introduced to guests, invited to ceremonies, or even told to stay away from their home because their family and co-workers will be afraid that they could lose their honour in the community; PLWHA themselves are often worried over the damaging effects of local attitudes towards their family because of their HIV status.

Appropriate workplace programmes will go a long way in tackling this unwholesome practice [ 12 ]. However, there was an instance of positive intention among the employers of labour. A large majority of participating employers in both private and public sectors disagreed with the notion that a member of staff who is HIV positive should not be recommended for further training because it would amount to a waste of resources as the worker will sooner than later fall sick and die. In addition to this, more than half of employers in the private sector and an overwhelming majority in the public sector do not support the statement that a member of staff who is HIV positive should not be recommended to train other workers for fear of infecting them i.

The results show that there are mixtures of positive and negative intentions existing among the participating establishments. More than half of employers in the private sector and the public sector counselled some of their workers to go for HIV test. Only some foreign owned companies and a few Nigerian organisations have HIV and AIDS prevention and control activities integrated within reproductive health programmes [ 13 ]. Rosen also observed that national governments, international agencies, and bilateral donors are looking up to the private sector across sub-Saharan Africa for leadership, resources, and action in the fight against HIV and AIDS [ 14 ].

It is noteworthy to find that no socio-demographic factor was significantly related to the possibility of a healthy looking person harbouring HIV. The apparent no significance is due to the higher proportion of respondents who indicated that a healthy looking person could harbour the virus. Collectively, socio-demographic characteristics may not be strong enough to influence intention.

However, in line with Green and Kreuter, individual behavioural antecedents may influence behavioural intentions [ 11 ]. Attitude, a concept with varied definition by various authors, is a predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain idea, object, person, or situation.

Promoting Jobs, Protecting People

Attitude influences an individual's choice of action, and responses to challenges, incentives, and rewards. Employers of labour indicated their attitudinal dispositions which may likely lead to their behavioural intentions towards staff or application found to be living with disease condition. Attitude was found to be significantly related to education, years of work experience and marital status. As mention earlier, education to a large extent is pivotal to functioning at a management level such as a policy maker especially in the public sector [ 1 , 2 ]. Even business organisations now require skilful, efficient and effective hands with higher level of education especially at the managerial level.

In addition to education, adequate knowledge of HIV and AIDS has great potential for facilitating the prevention and control of the pandemic. This will enhance their capacity to design, implement and institutionalise HIV and AIDS prevention and control programmes in workplaces in line with the [ 15 ] and [ 16 ] guidelines. The findings of this study revealed the behaviours practices , behavioural intentions and behavioural antecedents which should be addressed with appropriate HIV and AIDS education strategies in workplaces.

In addition, they could be relied upon for the design of educational interventions for making workplaces health promoting environments for PLWHAs. Firstly, HIV and AIDS has a huge impact on the world of work because it reduces the supply of labour and available skills, increase labour costs, reduces productivity, threatens the livelihoods of workers and employers, and creates environments which undermine the rights of workers.

Introduction

This is more so because there are a set of standards for working conditions and labour relations. Workplaces are communities where people come together, interact and share experiences. This provides an opportunity for awareness raising, the conduct of education programmes, and the protection of human rights.

Thirdly, employers and trade union leaders are important opinion leaders in their communities and countries. The findings of this study could be used as a training needs assessment for the design and development of a training curriculum for upgrading the knowledge and skills of policy makers relating to the design and implementation of workplace HIV and AIDS education programmes. Respondents' socio-demographic characteristics and attitudinal disposition of respondents towards workers and applicants who are living with HIV and AIDS. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding organizations.

National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Afr J Med Med Sci. Author manuscript; available in PMC Dec Find articles by I. Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer.

Methods The study was cross-sectional survey in design. Results There were more males Methodology The study was a descriptive cross—sectional survey designed to investigate the employers of labour and workplace HIV-related practices. Limitations The fact that the present paper was a part of master of Public Health dissertation determined my selection method.

Results Socio-demographic characteristics Most of the employers, Discussion Socio-demographic characteristics A large majority of the study respondents were in the private sector; they constituted an important sub-group of the population that help to sustain the economy of the LGA. Intended action against staff and applicants living with HIV and AIDS Majority of respondents across the private and public sectors exhibited both positive and negative intentions in their responses.

Tackling stigmatisation and discrimination in workplaces [ 13 ]. Factors that may influence the behavioural intentions of respondents towards workers and applicants who are living with HIV and AIDS It is noteworthy to find that no socio-demographic factor was significantly related to the possibility of a healthy looking person harbouring HIV. Conclusions The findings of this study revealed the behaviours practices , behavioural intentions and behavioural antecedents which should be addressed with appropriate HIV and AIDS education strategies in workplaces. Open in a separate window. Table 5 Respondents' socio-demographic characteristics and attitudinal disposition of respondents towards workers and applicants who are living with HIV and AIDS.

• Stepping Stones: Dream Bigger Every Day
• Di and Viv and Rose (Modern Plays)
• Erinnerung und Identität in frühen Erzählungen Heinrich Manns (German Edition)
• Introduction to Self-Bondage
• Statutory Interpretation - AQA: Unit 1 - Law Making and the Legal System (AQA AS/A2 English & Welsh Law 2013)
• Living Inside-Out: Be Who You Imagine You Can