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02-20-2005, 11:30 AM
Fri Feb 18,11:06 AM ET Health - Reuters
By Andrew Quinn
PRETORIA, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa's death toll soared by 57 percent in the five years to 2002, new figures on Friday showed, underscoring how the country's AIDS (news - web sites) epidemic is cutting a swathe through its working-age population.
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Releasing figures from a widely awaited national mortality study, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said reported deaths leapt to 499,268 in 2002 from 318,287 in 1997.
The report looks likely to spark new debate over the extent of the AIDS crisis in South Africa, where President Thabo Mbeki's government is often accused by critics of both underplaying and underestimating the crisis.
The study "provides indirect evidence that the HIV (news - web sites) epidemic in South Africa is raising the mortality levels of prime aged adults," Stats SA head Pali Lehohla said in a statement.
AIDS is increasingly seen as a threat to South Africa's future, with officials saying that up to 23 percent of its armed forces are infected with HIV and key industries including mining hard hit by the epidemic.
Stats SA said that among adults over 15, deaths increased by 62 percent between 1997 and 2002.
The report showed deaths increasing most rapidly for women and people aged between 20 and 49 -- both regarded as groups most susceptible to the AIDS virus, which affects an estimated one in nine of the country's 45 million people.
"Death from AIDS of working age adults is a real and immediate crisis," the opposition Democratic Alliance said in a statement responding to the new numbers Friday.
"Many of the adults who are dying, including nurses and teachers, are critical to South Africa's future. Yet the government has no comprehensive human resources plan in place to address this," the DA statement said.
THREE MILLION DEATH CERTIFICATES
The Stats SA study was based on 3 million official death certificates recorded over a five-year period. It said that on average 1,368 South Africans died every day in 2002, compared with just 872 deaths a day in 1997.
"It is in the 30 to 34 age group that we are seeing a very, very high percentage of deaths being registered," said Liz Gavin, the agency's director of population statistics. Stats SA said part of the increase could be attributed to overall growth in South Africa's population -- up an estimated 10 percent over the period -- as well as a more comprehensive death reporting system.
But experts agreed that hidden behind the numbers was a real and escalating AIDS death toll.
"The report ... indicates an unabating HIV/AIDS epidemic," said David Bourne, chief researcher at the University of Cape Town's School of Public Health.
Officials said exact causes of death remained difficult to ascertain, as in many cases common AIDS-related diseases such as tuberculosis, influenza or pneumonia were officially recorded as responsible.
These three diseases are killing many more South Africans than before as the AIDS virus spreads through the population.
Pneumonia was listed as responsible for 51,000 deaths in 2001 compared with 22,000 in 1997, while the toll from influenza and pneumonia jumped to 31,000 from 12,000 in the same period.
HIV, the subject of intense social stigma in South Africa where publicly funded AIDS drug treatment became available only last year, was directly blamed for only 9,000 deaths in 2001 against 6,000 four years earlier.
AIDS activists have sought to press the South African government into a more aggressive stance against the HIV/AIDS epidemic, saying that both stigma and lack of publicly available treatment were hindering the fight against the disease.
South Africa last year launched a public anti-retroviral drug program, but implementation remains slow with tens of thousands of prospective patients still unable to access the life-saving medication.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, speaking on Friday before the Stats SA figures were released, said the government was doing its best amid confusion about the extent of the disease and numbers of people needing treatment.
"Give me a country that has precise figures. Everybody is working on projections and we were working on projections too," she told reporters in Cape Town.
"You really are working in the dark ... so you just give the medicines hoping God will help us and be on our side."
By Andrew Quinn
PRETORIA, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa's death toll soared by 57 percent in the five years to 2002, new figures on Friday showed, underscoring how the country's AIDS (news - web sites) epidemic is cutting a swathe through its working-age population.
Yahoo! Health
Have questions about your health?
Find answers here.
Releasing figures from a widely awaited national mortality study, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said reported deaths leapt to 499,268 in 2002 from 318,287 in 1997.
The report looks likely to spark new debate over the extent of the AIDS crisis in South Africa, where President Thabo Mbeki's government is often accused by critics of both underplaying and underestimating the crisis.
The study "provides indirect evidence that the HIV (news - web sites) epidemic in South Africa is raising the mortality levels of prime aged adults," Stats SA head Pali Lehohla said in a statement.
AIDS is increasingly seen as a threat to South Africa's future, with officials saying that up to 23 percent of its armed forces are infected with HIV and key industries including mining hard hit by the epidemic.
Stats SA said that among adults over 15, deaths increased by 62 percent between 1997 and 2002.
The report showed deaths increasing most rapidly for women and people aged between 20 and 49 -- both regarded as groups most susceptible to the AIDS virus, which affects an estimated one in nine of the country's 45 million people.
"Death from AIDS of working age adults is a real and immediate crisis," the opposition Democratic Alliance said in a statement responding to the new numbers Friday.
"Many of the adults who are dying, including nurses and teachers, are critical to South Africa's future. Yet the government has no comprehensive human resources plan in place to address this," the DA statement said.
THREE MILLION DEATH CERTIFICATES
The Stats SA study was based on 3 million official death certificates recorded over a five-year period. It said that on average 1,368 South Africans died every day in 2002, compared with just 872 deaths a day in 1997.
"It is in the 30 to 34 age group that we are seeing a very, very high percentage of deaths being registered," said Liz Gavin, the agency's director of population statistics. Stats SA said part of the increase could be attributed to overall growth in South Africa's population -- up an estimated 10 percent over the period -- as well as a more comprehensive death reporting system.
But experts agreed that hidden behind the numbers was a real and escalating AIDS death toll.
"The report ... indicates an unabating HIV/AIDS epidemic," said David Bourne, chief researcher at the University of Cape Town's School of Public Health.
Officials said exact causes of death remained difficult to ascertain, as in many cases common AIDS-related diseases such as tuberculosis, influenza or pneumonia were officially recorded as responsible.
These three diseases are killing many more South Africans than before as the AIDS virus spreads through the population.
Pneumonia was listed as responsible for 51,000 deaths in 2001 compared with 22,000 in 1997, while the toll from influenza and pneumonia jumped to 31,000 from 12,000 in the same period.
HIV, the subject of intense social stigma in South Africa where publicly funded AIDS drug treatment became available only last year, was directly blamed for only 9,000 deaths in 2001 against 6,000 four years earlier.
AIDS activists have sought to press the South African government into a more aggressive stance against the HIV/AIDS epidemic, saying that both stigma and lack of publicly available treatment were hindering the fight against the disease.
South Africa last year launched a public anti-retroviral drug program, but implementation remains slow with tens of thousands of prospective patients still unable to access the life-saving medication.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, speaking on Friday before the Stats SA figures were released, said the government was doing its best amid confusion about the extent of the disease and numbers of people needing treatment.
"Give me a country that has precise figures. Everybody is working on projections and we were working on projections too," she told reporters in Cape Town.
"You really are working in the dark ... so you just give the medicines hoping God will help us and be on our side."