HIV No discrimination Infected more

HIV: No discrimination Infected more

03/15/2014

Although HIV-infected people can work in all professions thanks to medical progress without performance restrictions, those affected are still discriminated against partly because of ignorance but also because of false prejudices. In NRW, the National Commission for AIDS has issued a recommendation to stop the discrimination.

HIV-infected people can work without performance restrictions
Actually, HIV-infected people today can work in all professions thanks to medical progress without performance limitations. The North Rhine-Westphalian Ministers for Health, Barbara Steffens (Greens) and Labor, Guntram Schneider (SPD) have pointed this out. There is also no risk of infection if the general occupational safety and hygiene measures were observed. Even in the health sector, therefore, work with HIV or AIDS is possible. However, as the two politicians criticized, many people would be excluded from the world of work due to ignorance.

Appeal to companies to stop discrimination
An advisory body of the state government, the State Commission AIDS, has now issued recommendations on how to deal with people living with HIV / AIDS in the world of work. The two politicians together with the chairman of the state commission, Dr. med. Dieter Mitrenga, were presented on Thursday in Dusseldorf. The Health Minister appealed to all companies to end the discrimination against HIV-infected people. In North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) about 18,000 people live with HIV. About two-thirds of them are gainfully employed, but many others are still far from having equal participation in working life. An information campaign should help reduce fears and prejudices. In addition to companies, works councils, trade unions, job centers and training institutions, health insurance companies should also be acquired as partners. The recommendations of the state commission are already supported by ThyssenKrupp AG. As their labor director Oliver Burkhard said, the company wants to help shed light on the still taboo subject.

Mobilize potential instead of exclusion and stamping
Both many HR managers and employees still have misconceptions about the risk of infection and the resilience of HIV-infected people and therefore shy away from employment. Minister of Labor Schneider also refers to another point, the shortage of skilled workers: „In their own interests - also against the background of a shortage of skilled workers - companies must find a new, open way of dealing with the chronically ill and, accordingly, those infected with HIV. Companies have to identify, mobilize and retain all existing potentials instead of excluding or stamping out people. This is in the interests of companies and in the interests of the sick: participation in working life and the fact that they provide for their own livelihoods has a positive effect on the quality of life and on the course of the disease.“

Assistance offers for those affected
Like Dr. Mitrenga explained that the fear of accidents at work with people who are infected with HIV and in which blood also flows is unfounded if the hygiene rules are observed. This hygiene reservation, however, always and independently of AIDS. As Burkhard stressed, this also means that in the first aid after accidents at work anyway always gloves would have to be worn. Minister of Health Schneider explained that dismissal due to an AIDS infection was ineffective and even in recruitment studies no one would have to agree to an HIV test. „One may even say the untruth when it matters.“ And even physicians may only certify employers, whether someone is eligible for a health job, but do not give them information about HIV diagnoses. For affected persons there are offers of help: The Landesinstitut für Arbeitsgestaltung advises by phone and on the Internet at www.komnet.nrw.de on the subject of occupational safety and for victims of bullying there is an initial consultation at (02 11) 8 37 19 11.

HIV-infected people need more nursing homes in old age
In Austria too, the past few days dealt with the discrimination of people infected with HIV. During the Vorarlberg Aids talks, hundreds of participants discussed the topics in Bregenz on Friday „Medicine and care“, „HIV / AIDS and care“ such as „Positive life“. As the pulmonary specialist Christian Zagler from the Otto Wagner Hospital in Vienna pointed out in the run-up to the talks, life expectancy hardly differs from that of those infected with HIV for which early diagnosis and treatment take place. Therefore, HIV-infected people would become old and need outpatient and inpatient care. Even if the number of people living with HIV in nursing homes is still low, it will increase significantly in the coming years, presumably not only in Vorarlberg. „We are at the beginning of this development and need to do something now“, Renate Fleisch from Aids-Hilfe Vorarlberg. (Ad)