Johannesburg | Thursday
THE Medical Research Council said on Thursday it will release its long awaited HIV/Aids report — entitled ”The Impact HIV/Aids has on Mortality in South Africa” — in Cape Town next week.
MRC representative Merle May said the report would be made public on Tuesday.
The MRC delayed the release of the report in September saying it needed more time to discuss it with the country’s policy-makers.
On Wednesday Stats SA said it had difficulties with the MRC’s findings which indicated that 40% of adult deaths were caused HIV/Aids.
It followed Cabinet’s announcement earlier on Wednesday giving the MRC the go-ahead to release the report.
MRC president Dr Malegapuru Makgoba was not available for comment on Stats SA’s statement on Thursday afternoon.
Cabinet on Wednesday, after its fortnightly meeting, gave the MRC the go-ahead to release the report, which reportedly estimates that the epidemic now accounts for a quarter of all deaths.
The MRC predicts in the report that Aids will have killed between five million and seven million South Africans by 2010, the Mail & Guardian reported this week.
”We estimate that about 40% of the adult deaths aged 15 to 49 that occurred in the year 2000 were due to HIV/Aids and that about 20% of all adult deaths in that year were due to Aids,” the report is quoted as saying.
”When this is combined with excess deaths in childhood, it is estimated that Aids accounted for about 25% of all deaths in the year 2000 and has become the single biggest cause of death [in South Africa].” – Sapa