OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 7.30pm
SIX million South Africans will be HIV-positive in the next five years, while Aids will cut the country’s population growth rate by 71% over the next decade, according to a survey by the South African Institute of Race Relations which was released on Sunday.
Some 3.6 million people — one in 11 — already carry the virus — prompting the government on Friday to launch National Aids Council, which will be chaired by Deputy President Jacob.
By 2005, about six million South Africans would be HIV-positive, affecting more than 18% of the workforce infected, the survey found.
And, says Minister of Health Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimangm, Aids will orphan one million children by the same year.
The annual Aids death toll would rise from 250000 – according to former Minister of Welfare, Population and Development Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi who is quoted in the survey — in the three years to 2003, to 500000 by 2007.
Malaria and tuberculosis are also on the increase, the survey found, with more than 8000 cases of malaria and 37 deaths reported in the first two months of 1999 alone.
The number of tuberculosis cases grew by 13% in 1998.
Further evidence of the growing crisis was revealed on Friday, a survey released in Johannesburg showing that Aids was responsible for more than 11% of deaths in the South African workforce in 1998.
South Africa has one of the fastest growing infection rates for HIV in the world, with 1500 new cases recorded each day, according to government figures.