The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday accused Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang of keeping Aids statistics low after an official report was released by the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA).
”The minister of health must explain why official statistics are so low,” said DA spokesperson and MP Sandy Kalyan.
Kalyan said the report suggested that 2,2-million more people were becoming sick and dying of Aids than government figures showed.
”The minister of health needs to be interrogated about how her department collects the data that it bases its treatment programmes on.
”While the minister claims, on the basis of departmental information, that the [pandemic] is now stabilising, this report indicates otherwise. In fact, it suggests that almost one in six South Africans is HIV positive.”
Kalyan explained that if the Department of Health was using incorrect figures, then it meant that all the calculations on the number of people who needed treatment, the number of staff and the quantity of drugs required would be wrong.
”It ironic that last month the minister slammed a United Nations report — which showed South Africa falling drastically behind [in the Millennium Development Goals] — for information collated from small samples.
”Yet this is exactly how her department compiles its own statistics, with snap samples from a handful of clinics, in contrast to the DBSA report, which was based on information from many grassroots sources in addition to clinics, local municipalities, development planners, mortuaries and funeral homes.”
Kalyan said her party would ask Parliament whether the DBSA report could spark a review of the reliability of government statistics and, if necessary, call the minister to brief the health portfolio committee.
Meanwhile, Tshabalala-Msimang on Monday declined to be drawn into the controversy surrounding the DBSA report on HIV/Aids statistics.
Briefing the media in Cape Town, Tshabalala Msimang said the statistics released by the DBSA were a matter that should be left for researchers to study.
”There is a need for engagement amongst researchers so that they can guide us on this matter,” she said.
The Department of Health’s 2007 HIV statistics had put the number of South Africans infected with the virus at 5,4-million, 2,2-million less that what the DBSA statistics showed.
Tshabalala-Msimang said that although the department had noted the significant difference, the discrepancy did not mean that government had to revisit its HIV/Aids programmes. — Sapa