Impact of HIV infection on Zambian businesses

Abstract

In Zambia, an assessment was made of mortality and morbidity trends from 1987 to 1993 with data collected from the records of 33 companies. Death rates were calculated by dividing the annual number of deaths by the total number of employees at the end of each year. The average total number of employees during the study period was 10,204. The crude death rate among this population increased sequentially (P 0.001) from 0.25 per 100 person years in 1987 to 1.83 in 1993. (Average annual mortality between ages 15 and 60 years old in developing countries is 0.5 per 100 person years.) Most companies do not record cause of death, so this increase can not be absolutely attributable to AIDS. However, there was an increase in reporting death from AIDS and from tuberculosis and diarrhea, which are strongly associated with the disease. Since unemployment is a major problem in Zambia, there are many residents with less income and poorer nutrition than these workers. None of the company managers commented on possible demographic causes for this striking increase. Some managers had noticed increased mortality in their companies, but the aggregate figures really tell the tale.