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AIDS Kills 336,000 South Africans In 12 Months
by The Associated Press
http://365gay.com/Newscon06/08/083006saf.htm
(Cape Town, South Africa) More than a third of a million South Africans have died of AIDS over the past year, the head of the country's Medical Research Council says.
There are now an estimated 5.54 million HIV-positive South Africans, or about 11.6 percent of the country's population, and the highest country total in the world.
"Current data ... estimates that round about the midpoint of 2006, something like 336,000 deaths in the preceding 12 months were AIDS related," council president Prof. Anthony Mbewu told a parliamentary committee.
But he said there was a reluctance among South African doctors — who certified about 80 percent of deaths in the country — to write HIV or AIDS on a death certificate because of the stigma associated with disease.
Mbewu said about 25 percent of women aged 20-24 were HIV-positive, compared to about 10 percent of men in that age group.
The council "takes this deadly epidemic very seriously. Not only is it causing untold death and suffering to South Africans, it also threatens to reverse many of the developmental gains we have made, particularly since 1994," he was quoted as saying by the South African Press Association.
The government has been increasingly criticized over its handling of the AIDS crisis, with many calling for Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to resign.
Tshabalala-Msimang repeatedly has voiced doubts about the safety and efficacy of antiretroviral drugs, and instead has promoted foods such as garlic, lemon and beetroot as remedies.
The South African Medical Association, which represents doctors, on Tuesday called for an end to the "misrepresentation on treatment of AIDS."
"Antiretroviral (ARV) medication is the only treatment that is scientifically proven to prolong the lives of people with AIDS. There is overwhelming and conclusive evidence from local and international clinical trials to support the fact that ARVs improve and indefinitely prolong the lives of patients with AIDS," association chairman Kgosi Letlape said.
"The minister's emphasis of the exaggerated value of nutrition as a preferential means to manage and treat AIDS is confusing a vulnerable public," Letlape said in a statement.
The Health Ministry rejected the criticism, saying its treatment and prevention plan was "comprehensive," with antiretroviral medicines now being provided free of charge in about 230 public health facilities.
©365Gay.com 2006
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