Cape Town — Government appears to have sidestepped a recommendation to implement a specific HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programme for teachers and is instead preparing a general "wellness" programme for teachers and pupils.

For years fears have been expressed that SA is losing teachers faster than they can be trained due to HIV/AIDS.

In 2004, the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) studied the incidence of HIV among teachers and came up with recommendations.

One of these was that the education department and donor agencies "should establish and manage a workplace programme specifically to provide a comprehensive HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment programme".

However, in a reply to a parliamentary question from Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Ryan Coetzee, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said her department was one of the many key stakeholders involved in an initiative which is "the development of a national framework on health and wellness programme for both educators and learners".

This framework is intended to guide the education sector at all levels in the implementation of a wellness programme that "focuses on all health aspects instead of focusing on HIV and AIDS only".

Tshabalala-Msimang did concede that money had been obtained from the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief for the provision of antiretroviral drugs, particularly for teachers.

DA health spokesman Gareth Morgan said that while the HSRC had highlighted many chronic diseases facing educators, the immediacy of the HIV/AIDS threat deserved an extraordinary response from Tshabalala- Msimang and the national education department.

SA was already facing a critical shortage of educators and had to act swiftly to mitigate the effects of HIV/AIDS on the teaching population, Morgan said.

Specific recommendations were provided in the 2004 survey on educator supply and demand, which the minister had not taken seriously, he said.

Morgan said the health and education ministers "must not hide behind a vague wellness plan for educators" which did not contain the urgency to deal with HIV/AIDS.

"It is clear that the relevant departments need to target educators in need of antiretroviral therapy," he said.

Tshabalala-Msimang said the HSRC/MRC study had found "on the issue of morbidity, that about 12,7% of educators are HIV- positive and 22% of those are in need of antiretroviral therapy".

However, the minister said, HIV/AIDS was not the only factor in teacher morbidity.

Other diseases played significant roles in the health of educators. The most frequently reported of these in the past five years were high blood pressure (15,6%), stomach ulcers (9,1%) and diabetes (4,5%).