Discrimination against AIDS sufferers growing

People infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS face discrimination in getting jobs, according to a report by the International Labor Organization (ILO) released here yesterday.

The report on possible discrimination in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said that there had been cases where employees found positive for HIV/AIDS were forced to resign.

Employees with HIV/AIDS also faced denial of health insurance benefits, salary cuts and even harassment while job applicants faced greater chances of rejection, ILO regional director Werner Konrad Blenk said in the report.

The report was issued after a regional ILO forum on discrimination in the workplace held in Manila.

Blenk, however, conceded there were no actual figures of how many workers have been affected by the discrimination over HIV/AIDS because few people were willing to file complaints due to fear of being ostracized.

Labor officials said accounts of discrimination were largely anecdotal but stressed they were looking deeper into the problem.

"Discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS is a growing concern, especially among women," Blenk said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has previously warned that the Western Pacific region, which includes China and much of Southeast Asia, accounts for 1.4 million of the world’s more than 40 million HIV/AIDS cases.

The WHO has also warned that stigmatizing and ostracizing people with HIV/AIDS will only encourage the spread of the disease. – AFP, Sheila Crisostomo