HIV/Aids is the biggest single killer of new mothers in South Africa, the Department of Health said on Tuesday in a grim new statistic of the pandemic’s toll on the country.
The department released a study on maternal deaths from 2002 to 2004, illustrating a raft of problems with medical care for mothers in the country, which is both the richest in Africa and among the worst hit by the Aids crisis.
The study looked at 3 406 deaths of pregnant women and new mothers between 2002 and 2004 and found HIV/Aids was responsible for 20,1% of fatalities — the largest single category.
Other causes of death included pneumonia and tuberculosis, both frequently associated with HIV/Aids infection but listed separately, along with haemorrhage, malaria and other illnesses.
Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, often criticised by Aids activists for what they say is the government’s slow response to the crisis, said high maternal mortality was ”of great concern” but that South Africa was confident it was on the right track.
”We should be confident and defend the position we take as a nation in responding to our health challenges,” she said in a statement.
The survey noted that South Africa’s national plan to tackle HIV, which includes free antiretroviral drugs, only began at the end of the research period — which could help reduce maternal Aids deaths in future.
But it also detailed other problems with maternal care in South Africa, ranging from lack of transport and inadequate ante-natal education to poor screening for disease and negligence by health workers, which it said were keeping the country’s maternal death rate unacceptably high.
Tshabalala-Msimang said that while South Africa was working hard to reduce maternal deaths, there was still much to do.
”We have to particularly address the point raised in the report that a significant number of deaths could have been avoided,” she said. — Reuters