Malawi Offers Pay Raise for HIV-Positive Civil Servants

The government of Malawi, in southern Africa, supplements the pay of HIV-positive civil servants in an effort to improve their nutrition.

According to Reuters South Africa, Malawi's principal secretary for HIV/AIDS and nutrition, Mary Shaba, the $35 monthly supplement is not a traditional pay raise but a "workplace program for nutritional support for people to respond to treatment quickly." Shaba says the original idea for the program was to assist HIV-positive civil servants to buy antiretroviral drugs. However, the country began providing access to no-cost ARVs in 2004, so, HIV-positive civil servants "now need nutritional support," Shaba says.

"We know that thousands" are living with HIV "in the civil service, and with the new system, we expect to have exact numbers when people enroll as beneficiaries," Shaba tells Reuters. Officials estimate about one million people in Malawi are living with HIV and about 640,000 people have died from AIDS-related causes since 1985.

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