Governments must catch up with workplace non-communicable disease prevention

What happens when the political and socio-economic climate within a nation delays the government’s response to solving some of the most critical health issues within a society? One outcome is that non-governmental stakeholders, including the private sector, look towards dev eloping alternative solutions. When businesses employ individuals from that same society, declines in health status start to impact business continuity. With a need for efficiency and quick results, the private sector is able to use its technical and financial assets to carry out successful workplace-based interventions within both communicable and non-communicable disease (NCD) programmes. As an example, many simultaneous factors, such as the integrated push from civil society, academia and international NGOs, led to the provision of anti-retroviral treatment (ART) by the South African government in each of the country’s 53 districts in March 2005 [1]. However, the first organization to provide ARTs free of charge was not the government, but a private sector entity, the mining company Anglo American in South Africa.

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