Pretoria - Truck drivers across South Africa have been encouraged to lead a healthy lifestyle by making use of the 20 roadside wellness centres countrywide.
As part of Transport Month, Mercedes-Benz South Africa, in partnership with South African Business Coalition on HIV and AIDS (SABCOHA), re-launched the programme on Tuesday.
Previously known as Trucking Against AIDS, the programme was established in 1999 to ensure universal access to quality STI, HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support for truckers, including their families and sex workers in the industry.
The roadside wellness centres consist of modified six-meter containers, with one fully equipped with medication and staffed by a qualified nursing sister, who provides healthcare and counseling to patients suffering from STIs.
The second container is used as an awareness education and training facility.
Mercedes Benz Vice President, Kobus van Zyl, said to date, a total of 388 840 patients have received education at wellness centres; 141 038 patients were treated, 48 573 of which were specifically treated for STIs.
"More than 10 million condoms have been distributed since 2000 across the various centres," van Zyl said.
Mercedes Benz allocated R3.5 million in 2009 to scale up the work of the programme in targeted areas.
Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele welcomed the Mercedes Benz intervention, adding that he hoped the centres were not only used by Mercedes Benz employees, but by all truck drivers.
"Their work is necessary and urgent to ensure that drivers are safe from accidents [and] also adopt a holistic approach to health and safety," Ndebele said.
