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Transport workers make HIV prevention a workplace issue
30 November 2006
The world’s transport workers are all set to mobilise behind World AIDS Day tomorrow in a bid to see HIV prevention taken seriously in the workplace. This move is part of a global push organised by the ITF to combat the disease.
ITF-affiliated unions are signing up to the initiative, which promotes HIV prevention and campaigns for counselling and testing facilities and anti-retroviral drugs. It also aims to combat prejudice against people living with HIV.
ITF General Secretary David Cockroft commented: “For several years the ITF has been at the forefront of AIDS work involving transport workers and this year we are working closely with the World AIDS Campaign and with our sister global union federations. With them we will have a particular focus on pushing the message of ‘Universal access to HIV services in the workplace by 2010’.”
Dr Asif Altaf, ITF Global HIV/AIDS Project Coordinator, said: “For years AIDS was seen as a medical problem, but now it is recognised just how deeply it is influenced by social, economic and political factors. We hope that World AIDS Day will provide a way of taking the messages of prevention, treatment and support into the workplaces where it has not always been heard.”
“Some groups of workers, including those in transport, are put at particular risk because of the nature of their work. This is what’s behind the ITF's ongoing effort in this area, of which this campaign is the latest – and biggest – example.”
For more details of the ITF’s HIV/AIDS campaign see www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/stopAids2006.cfm
For more details of World AIDS Day and the World AIDS Campaign see www.worldAidscampaign.org
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