Mbeki questions spending on HIV/AIDS

South African President Thabo Mbeki has ordered the government to re-evaluate its social policy spending in light of 1995 data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) that states “external causes” such as accidents, homicide and suicide, not HIV/AIDS, make up the leading cause of death in the nation, the Johannesburg newspaper ‘Business Day’ reported on Monday.

The WHO figures showed external causes to be responsible for 19.8 percent of deaths, while HIV/AIDS accounted for 2.2 percent. In a letter dated 6 August to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Mbeki asked that she share the statistics with the cabinet’s “social cluster” and consider what policies the government has in place to reduce deaths, whether resources are properly allocated in light of the statistics and whether the country’s medical institutions are properly prepared to deal with the types of deaths mentioned in the report.

The decision to review funding based on the WHO data is likely to reignite criticism because the pattern of AIDS deaths has been significantly altered since 1995. According to the newspaper, the South African Medical Research Council(MRC) is expected to release a report in the next few weeks stating that AIDS-related deaths were the nation’s leading cause of death from 1999 through mid-2001. The MRC report will show that the pattern of AIDS deaths has shifted significantly since the mid-1990s, the period from which Mbeki’s statistics come.

Mbeki, who previously caused controversy by publicly questioning the causal link between HIV and AIDS, acknowledged in the letter that his decision would likely “provoke a howl of displeasure and a concerted propaganda campaign from those who have convinced themselves that HIV/AIDS is the single biggest cause of death”. South Africa’s main political opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA) described Mbeki’s letter as “bizarre” and said it proves he is in denial of the HIV/AIDS problem that is ravaging the country.