South Africa AIDS toll: 950 die each day
Pastor Dale Morgan
South Africa AIDS toll: 950 die each day*
POSTED: 1949 GMT (0349 HKT), December 01, 2006
Story Highlights
• South Africa has second-highest number of HIV cases in world
• Nation sees half million new cases a year
• Government to unveil new plan to fight disease
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- Fewer than half of South Africa's
15-year-olds will live to see their 60th birthday because of HIV/AIDS,
according to a new report.
An estimated 950 people died per day during 2006 from AIDS related
diseases, and a further 1,400 were infected each day -- a total of
530,000 new infections, said the report by the Actuarial Society of
South Africa and the Medical Research Council.
The report, issued every two years and widely used as a model for
predicting the course of the disease and its impact, included an
estimate that 5.4 million of South Africa's 48 million people were
infected with the AIDS virus by the middle of 2006 -- a figure in line
with the government's own estimates issued earlier this year.
Only India is believed to have more people infected with HIV than South
Africa.
The report said that life expectancy dropped from 63 in 1990 to 51 in
2006. In the hardest hit province of KwaZulu-Natal, it was as low as 43.
"The Demographic Impact of HIV/AIDS in South Africa: National and
Provincial Indicators for 2006" said that 15-year-olds had a 56 percent
chance of dying before the age of 60, compared to a 29 percent chance of
dying in 1990.
"The youth of today are facing a bleak future, and much still needs to
be done to protect and support this vulnerable group," says Leigh
Johnson, one of the authors of the report.
The South African government, long under fire for doing too little to
prevent the spread of AIDS and treatment victims of the disease,
recently revamped its strategy. It gave responsibility to Deputy
President Phumzile Mlambo-Ncguka and effectively sidelined Health
Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who has been criticized for praising
garlic, lemons and the African potato as remedies while disparaging the
benefits of antiretroviral medicines.
Mlambo-Ncguka is due to unveil a plan for prevention, care and treatment
of HIV/AIDS in 2007-2011 at World AIDS Day ceremonies on Friday. The
final five-year plan will be released in March, to allow time for
activist groups, who were previously ignored by the government, to have
their say.
The new report said high rates of AIDS mortality will persist in South
Africa at least for the next decade, but much depended on the provision
of treatment. It forecast that if 50 percent of people with AIDS were
given treatment, then by 2010 approximately 388,000 AIDS deaths would
occur each year.
This compared to approximately 291,000 deaths if 90 percent of people
progressing to AIDS started treatment.
The report said that approximately 230,000 HIV-infected individuals were
receiving antiretroviral treatment by mid-2006, and a further 540,000
were sick with AIDS but not receiving any therapy.