Malawi pays to improve nutrition of HIV-positive workers

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

BLANTYRE (AFP) — Malawi, one of Africa's poorest countries, is to give civil servants carrying the HIV virus an extra 35 dollars a month to help them improve their nutrition, a top health official said Tuesday.

"It is not extra pay but a workplace programme for nutritional support for people to respond to treatment quickly," Mary Shaba, principal secretary for Nutrition, HIV-AIDS programme, told AFP.

Malawi has 120,000 public servants whose monthly salaries average 70 dollars (48 euros) although the number of those with HIV is unknown.

Shaba said the initial idea of the initiative was to help public servants carrying the virus to buy anti-retrovirals, but since Malawi introduced free ARV drugs in 2004, "the civil servants who are HIV-positive now need...