Syed Asif Altaf explains why the ITF has launched a global project to fight HIV/Aids in the transport sector

Although it has seemed a familiar enemy for the last 25 years, HIV/AIDS has only more recently been seen for what it is: a unique threat that jeopardises economic growth, social and political stability, and whose impact will be felt for many more generations.

HIV/AIDS has a multiple impact on the transport sector. It affects transport workers, their families, communities, the enterprise concerned and the transport economy as a whole. The time of highest risk of HIV transmission coincides with the peak years of productive life in adult men and women. Mobility and long absences from home make transport workers particularly vulnerable to HIV, whether they work on land, sea or air routes.

AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognised in 1981, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history. According to UNAIDS, over 40 million people are now living with this virus and in 2005 alone nearly five million people were newly infected. And while the crisis continues to deepen in Africa, recent data shows the epidemic is spreading fast in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. At the same time we are witnessing a newly expanding epidemic in rich countries, which threatens to reverse the short-lived gains made against the disease in the 1990s.

In the era of globalisation, HIV too has become a global phenomenon.

Transport links

With the globalisation of production, increasing numbers of transport companies are transforming into inter-modal freight and logistics companies with several forms of transport. This means companies have greater control over ensuring seamless, flexible schedules, which may increase the likelihood that their workers will be required to be away from home for an even longer time.

The consequences are not only national but also sub-regional and beyond. Global production and the supply chain also mean that the deadlines are tighter with increased work pressure on the workers. The growth of “just-in-time” inventory control means much tighter delivery times with penalty clauses for late delivery adding to the stress that workers experience.

As one truck driver along the Uganda-Kenya highway commented to researchers studying trucking routes in the region: “Many truck drivers end up with AIDS because they have so many problems – the workload, low wages, police corruption, the condition of the road and so on. When you have all these problems, they affect the driver psychologically, so he finds a place to have entertainment and get relief.”

In a number of African and some Asian countries, HIV prevalence is higher among transport workers than in the general population, especially among long distance drivers on some major transport corridors.

UNAIDS’ Global AIDS epidemic update notes: “Estimated national adult HIV prevalence rose from 14 per cent to 16 per cent in just two years, with HIV spreading fastest in provinces that contain the country’s main transport links with Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe.”

The same story goes for Zambia, where HIV prevalence remains high: “Urban residents are twice as likely to be HIV positive, compared with rural residents, with highest infection levels clustered in cities and towns that straddle major transport routes.”

Along one particular route in South India, a recent survey found that 16 per cent of drivers were HIV positive, while the national prevalence rate is less than one per cent. It is not only truck drivers who are vulnerable. While much less data is available in other sectors, alarming indicators do exist. The joint seafarers initiative of Unicef and UNAIDS estimate, for example, that 22 per cent of seafarers in the Mekong region of south east Asia (including Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia) may be infected with HIV.

Women speaking out

While transport is a particularly vulnerable industrial sector, and women are increasingly the more vulnerable gender, this does not mean that women transport workers are more vulnerable than other women. In fact, their economic independence from men can give them a key role, especially in unequal societies.

Women transport union members have been closely involved in education and campaigning work. In society, women are commonly victims of sexual violence, and are forced into unprotected sex. Many wives and girlfriends of transport workers have been infected in this way. Women transport trade unionists have spoken out against gender-based violence.

Those women who contract the virus often also have less access to life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs than men. This issue too has been raised by women in the ITF.

Prevention, treatment and current ITF initiatives >>