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AIDS Becomes Leading Killer in South Africa

Posted on: Wednesday, 18 May 2005, 09:00 CDT

AIDS becomes leading killer in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG, May 17 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's biggest killer is HIV/AIDS, which causes 1 in 3 deaths, the Medical Research Council (MRC) said in a report on cause-specific death rates for each of the nine provinces issued here on Tuesday.

Estimates of HIV/AIDS mortality in Gauteng province, the economic center in the country, accounted for 33 percent of all deaths in 2000 - one in three - compared with 30 percent of all deaths nationwide, according to the report.

Compiled by the MRC's Burden of Disease Research Unit, the report shows that overall mortality rates and causes of death differ in the provinces, but that HIV/AIDS is the leading killer across the board.

"These figures are just going to get worse and worse," Mark Heywood, spokesperson for the Treatment Action Campaign, said on Monday.

The findings relating to HIV/AIDS deaths were consistent with other available reports.

The deaths in 2000 were at the beginning of a period of rapid HIV infection. More people have been infected since then and more people are going to be dying.

But Dr. Letitia Rispel, head of department for the Gauteng Health Department, said it would be difficult to say what the situation would be now without taking programs implemented since 2000 into account.

"These include the prevention of mother-to-child treatment, wellness programs and the anti-retroviral rollout program. Only once we have taken these into account will we get a clear picture, " he added.

The MRC report, which also looks at other causes of deaths in the various provinces, shows that these varied from province to province.

For women in Gauteng, the main causes of death, excluding HIV/ AIDS, are stroke, lower respiratory tract infections, homicide, ischaemic heart disease, road accidents, TB, hypertensive heart disease, diarrhoeal diseases, septicemia and diabetes mellitus.

For men, the 10 leading causes of death, excluding HIV/AIDS, are homicide and road traffic accidents, ischaemic heart disease, TB, lower respiratory infections, stroke, suicide, diarrhoeal diseases, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

This differs from the 10 leading causes of death for Western Cape men.

For those, the 10 leading causes of death are homicide, HIV/ AIDS, traffic accidents, TB, heart disease and stroke, cancer of the upper respiratory tract or lungs, suicide, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lower respiratory infections.

For women in the Western Cape the main causes of death are HIV/ AIDS, TB, heart disease, stroke, traffic accidents, homicide, diabetes, diarrhoeal diseases, breast cancer and lower respiratory infections.

And according to the report, Western Cape residents have the highest life expectancy in the country, probably due to a relatively low HIV infection rate.

According to a report carried in local daily The Star, the National Association of People Living with HIV and AIDS was not surprised at the high HIV/AIDS mortality rate.

The national Health Department said it would comment once it had studied the report.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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