2006年VOA标准英语-African Trade Unions Focus on HIV/AIDS in Workp

By Efam Dovi
Accra
13 July 2006

Africa Trade Union leaders say they will work for policies to protect the rights of members living with HIV/AIDS. At a three day meeting in the Ghanaian capital Accra, the African chapter of Union Network International or UNI, an umbrella of national trade unions across the globe, said a workplace policy on HIV/AIDs would help reduce infection rates among the continent's labor¹ force, which is said to be the most vulnerable group.The vast majority of people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa are in the prime of their working lives, according to recent statistics.

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Addressing union leaders, Ghana's vice² president, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, said HIV is gradually eroding³ the continent's workforce⁴.

Over 90 percent of HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa is transmitted through heterosexual contact, among the age group of between 15 and 49.

The vice president described as "frightening" the HIV/AIDs prevalence rates of 6.5 percent for Togo and nearly 11 percent in the Ivory Coast, adding that the situation in Ghana is equally alarming.

Mahama said although much has been done to reduce the rate of the disease in Ghana, it is difficult to get those infected to come forward due to stigmatization⁵ and discrimination against them by society.

"Any worker who is discriminated⁶ against in the work place because of his or her HIV status affects his or her rights to live and work in dignity," he said.

The vice president said protecting the human rights of affected⁷ workers and combating discrimination against them remain a very important role for trade unions. He called for a proactive approach by employers and organized labor in the formulation of workplace polices to fight HIV/AIDs.

The regional secretary of UNI Africa, Fackson Shamenda, says it is important to adopt a holistic⁸ approach in dealing⁹ with HIV/AIDS.

"It is a disease it is come here to stay, so as much as you talk about prevention you've got a very large number of people who are already infected," Shamenda said. " So it is important also you take care of the people who are infected. You cannot ask somebody also to go for voluntary testing if they know their status and you don't provide the necessary medicine to take care of them, then the whole exercise is futile¹⁰ which has created unnecessarily stigmatization on people, so it's a range of how can we prevent it, how are we going to take care of those who are infected and how is it going to be managed."

Shamenda says it is sad that less than 10 percent of workers living with HIV/AIDs have access to medication.

Solomon Adebosin, UNI Africa youth president, says employers have to be made to do more.

"It is part of the policy we are looking at that once somebody can come up to declare their status, it will be the employers duty, because the employers have a part to play in health of their workers, if the workers are always falling sick then the productivity become low, anybody who come up to declare their status, it is the right and the duty and obligation of the employer to ensure that that person is also given adequate medical care," Adebosin said.

Nearly two-thirds of the world's HIV-positive people live in sub-Saharan Africa.

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

3 eroding   

侵蚀，腐蚀( erode的现在分词 )； 逐渐毁坏，削弱，损害

参考例句：

• The coast is slowly eroding. 海岸正慢慢地被侵蚀。
• Another new development is eroding the age-old stereotype of the male warrior. 另一个新现象是，久已形成的男人皆武士的形象正逐渐消失。

4 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

5 stigmatization   

n.描绘，陈述

参考例句：

6 discriminated   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• His great size discriminated him from his followers. 他的宽广身材使他不同于他的部下。
• Should be a person that has second liver virus discriminated against? 一个患有乙肝病毒的人是不是就应该被人歧视？

7 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

8 holistic   

adj.从整体着眼的，全面的

参考例句：

• There is a fundamental ambiguity in the use of word "whole" in recent holistic literature.在近代的整体主义著作中，“整体”这个词的用法极其含混。
• In so far as historicism is technological,its approach is not piecemeal,but "holistic".仅就历史决定论是一种技术而论，它的方法不是渐进的，而是“整体主义的”。

9 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

10 futile   

adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的

参考例句：

• They were killed,to the last man,in a futile attack.因为进攻失败，他们全部被杀，无一幸免。
• Their efforts to revive him were futile.他们对他抢救无效。