The Democratic Alliance is invoking the Promotion of Access to Information Act in an attempt to force the health ministry to release the Antenatal HIV Prevalence Survey for 2002.
According to media reports, the latest HIV prevalence rate jumped from 24,8% in 2001 to 26,5% in 2002. This two percent increase is apparently the reason government has not released the report.
The information was to have been released in April. DA spokesperson on HIV and Aids, Mike Waters, said the party was concerned by the delay.
”Concealing the facts surrounding South Africa’s Aids epidemic, rather than confronting the problem, is typical of the minister of health’s approach to Aids, and is part of the reason for the country’s continued failure to bring down the infection rate,” Waters said.
An application to have the information made public, in terms of the act, had been sent to the health department on Thursday. He said government’s secrecy was alienating everyone with whom they should be working to bring the epidemic under control.
”At the same time, a refusal to deal openly with the facts allows denial to flourish, and denial is one of the driving forces of the Aids epidemic,” Waters said.
However, the director of actuarial research at the University of Cape Town, Professor Rob Dorrington, said the two percent increase might not be statistically significant after all.
”Because they use a sample, it is entirely possible that it is not indication of a change in trend.”
The difference could just be a random fluctuation, he said.
”It just depends; on the day the testing is done there might be a lot more HIV positive women or HIV negative women.
”Its like doing a survey on how many people voted for a particular party — you might just get a whole bunch of DA supporters in your sample, but its not actually representative of what is happening.”
The annual survey is the only measurement compiled by the government that traces the progression of HIV infections, and is an important indicator of the success of attempts to control the disease. – Sapa