Malawians with HIV get pay rise
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008Malawian civil servants with HIV are to be given a pay rise by the government.
Health Minister Marjorie Ngaunjeb said all civil servants affected by the disease would receive an extra $35 a month to help them buy more food.
“We thought [it] would go a long way in improving their nutritional requirements which are essential to their wellbeing,” she told Reuters.
Tens of thousands of Malawians die of Aids every year with about 7% of the 13m population infected.
Another government official said that the extra money should help those with HIV prolong their lives.
Losing large numbers of trained staff is a major problem for the countries worst affected by HIV/Aids, such as Malawi.
The BBC’s Raphael Tenthani in Blantyre says the government is the country’s largest employer with about 120,000 civil servants.
Their monthly salaries average about $70, AFP news agency reports.
After years of silence, the authorities spoke out about the crisis in 2004, when a programme to tackle HIV/Aids was launched.
Then President Bakili Muluzi revealed that his brother had died from the disease.
Last year, the government called on all sexually active people in the country to take an Aids test.
The UN estimates that 80% of people with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa do not know they have the virus.
