Johannesburg | Thursday
THE government will not be able to hold back the Medical Research Council’s report on Aids mortality in South Africa for much longer due to pressure for the paper to be released, the MRC said on Thursday.
MRC representative Merle May said: “They can’t sustain the pressure. The people want the report.”
The MRC was hoping to release the document, which says that Aids is the country’s leading cause of death and is responsible for the deaths of 40% of people aged between 15 and 49, by the end of this week.
However, this has been delayed due to various groups claiming that they have not been briefed properly on the paper.
Asked if the concerned government departments, especially in the social cluster, had been briefed, May said the report had been presented to the directors-general.
“We are now briefing them again because they say they haven’t been briefed properly. We are letting them give input but we are not asking them to endorse it (the report),” she said.
Earlier this week an interdepartmental task team on mortality statistics said the completed MRC study was first presented to heads of the departments of Home Affairs and Health and to Statistics SA on September 3. Two days later the results were shared with heads of other departments in the social cluster.
The task team, led by Statistics SA, consists of the Health Department, Home Affairs Department and the MRC and was set up following a Cabinet decision to prioritise work on the collection of mortality data.
May said the controversy surrounding the report was “very peculiar”.
“We produce reports all the time. It’s not controversial, it’s a predictor.”
Earlier this year President Thabo Mbeki wrote a letter to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang urging a re-examination of South Africa’s social spending priorities.
The letter detailed 1995 World Health Organisation (WHO) figures in an apparent attempt to de-emphasise the HIV/Aids crisis in the country.
Mbeki instructed the minister to examine the 1995 data that he extracted from the internet which showed “HIV disease” was the cause of only 2,2% of all deaths in South Africa.
The 1995 figures show the leading cause of death to be external causes (19,8%) and diseases of the circulatory system (17,5%). Mbeki suggested the minister share the information with others in Cabinet’s social cluster.
Researchers for the MRC, a statutory body, started working on the report entitled “The Impact HIV/Aids has on Mortality in South Africa” more than a year ago.
Drafts of the document have been leaked to various newspapers.
May said one of the reasons the council also wanted the report released was because information in the paper was contained in the MRC’s annual report as well as its newsletter which would have to be published soon.
The Congress of SA Trade Unions, various church groups and Aids drug lobbyists the Treatment Action Campaign will hold a press conference on Thursday afternoon where they are expected to condemn the government for the delay.
MRC president Malegapuru Makgoba will brief Parliament on the pandemic and women on Friday. – Sapa
ZA*NOW:
Mbeki on Aids: head in sand, foot in mouth September 10, 2001