Soaring death figures fuel anger over Aids

PRETORIA - Despairing Aids activists have accused the South African Government of not dealing with the country's soaring HIV epidemic, after a report showed that the number of deaths in South Africa, many Aids-related, rose 57 per cent over five years.

Most the deaths between 1997 and 2002 were caused by tuberculosis, influenza and pneumonia - illnesses frequently caught by Aids patients.

Pali Lehohla, head of the Government-run Statistics South Africa, which produced the report, said: "The numbers provide indirect evidence that the HIV epidemic in South Africa is raising the mortality levels of prime-aged adults, in that associated diseases are on the increase."

He said the number of deaths in adults between 29 and 40 was increasing - a strong indicator of rising Aids-related mortality.

Furious Aids lobby groups have seized on the figures to attack the Government's failure to come even close to meeting its own targets on the treatment of HIV sufferers.

The Treatment Action Campaign Group (Tac) forced health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to admit that the Government had treated only between 28,000 and 31,000 Aids patients with anti retroviral drugs (ARVs) - far short of its target of treating 53,000 people by next month.

A Tac spokesman said if South Africa was to make headway in the battle against Aids, the Government had to treat 200,000 people - at least 10 per cent of them children - by the beginning of next year.

South Africa's president, Thabo Mbkei, has blamed medical staff shortages and problems with drug supplies for the delays, but the Tac said Mbeki simply lacked the commitment to implement an effective Aids plans.

The opposition Inkatha Freedom Party joined in the criticism.

Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who lost two children to Aids, said: "It is as if he [Mbeki] lives in a different South Africa from the millions of people suffering and dying from HIV/Aids."

The medical profession lost faith in Statistics South Africa in 2002, when it estimated that HIV/Aids caused only 8.7 per cent of deaths in the country.

Doctors said many Aids-related deaths were classified as deaths caused by related illnesses such as tuberculosis.

Even the latest figures may be skewed, as they are based on the 3 million death notification forms received by the Department of Home Affairs between 1997 and 2003.

The number of deaths may well be higher because many people in rural areas do not register all deaths, especially those of new-born babies.

Mbeki questioned the link between HIV and Aids for years. He has warned that many Aids drugs are unsafe, and refused to provide ARVs to prevent mother-to-child transmission.

The South African Medical Research Council said many doctors were reluctant to certify deaths as caused by HIV/Aids because families then had difficulty claiming on life insurance or funeral policies.

South Africa has one of the highest incidences of Aids in the world. Conservative estimates say about around 5.3 million of South Africa's 45 million people are infected.

- INDEPENDENT