In some industries, however, the damage from AIDS is low because the industries rely on unskilled labor which is very easy to find in Africa. In these cases, the loss of laborers may actually help those that survive the epidemic just as it helped the survivors of the bubonic plague in Europe. Those who survive will have a better chance for jobs and better lives than they may have had before the epidemic. Secondly, AIDS is posing a great threat to both public and private medical budgets. The cost of AIDS drugs and other treatments is simply more than the governments can handle.
Companies also can no longer afford to offer many health care benefits.
Most cope by either dismissing sick employees or capping their health care benefits. This does not bother most Africans, though, because most of them either do not know about the drugs or refuse to take them. Private insurance often is out of the question for those Africans who would like the treatments. Most private insurance companies require blood tests before they will insure anyone. Finally, AIDS is costing many African companies most, if not all, of their profits.