Death rates among South African men and women of virtually all ages rose dramatically between 1997 and 2004, most likely due to AIDS-related illnesses.
According to a new 170-page mortality report released by Statistics South Africa on Thursday, the death rate for women aged 20 to 39 more than tripled in the seven-year period, while deaths among men aged 30 to 44 more than doubled.
A Johannesburg newspaper, The Star, said the report was the most comprehensive of its kind to date, due to the improved reporting of deaths, from 60 percent in the 1990s to more than 80 percent by 2004.
Although the cause of death was rarely reported as AIDS-related, the distinctive pattern, which peaked between 30 and 34 for women, and 35 to 39 for men, left researchers in little doubt that AIDS was the real culprit in a high proportion of the deaths registered under other causes.
"Large increases in the death rates of women in their 20s and 30s since the late 1990s are thought to result mainly from HIV[/AIDS]," wrote authors Barbara Anderson and Heston Phillips in their introduction to the report. "With the increases in HIV prevalence at antenatal clinics since 1990, and with the long average lag from infection to death, it seems likely that HIV[/AIDS] deaths will continue to increase in South Africa for some years."
The release of the report coincided with an announcement by government spokesperson Themba Maseko that HIV and AIDS would no longer be the sole responsibility of the department of health, but of government as a whole. An interministerial committee, headed by deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, will be set up to assist the health department in coordinating the government's HIV and AIDS programmes.
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According to a new 170-page mortality report released by Statistics South Africa on Thursday, the death rate for women aged 20 to 39 more than tripled in the seven-year period, while deaths among men aged 30 to 44 more than doubled.
A Johannesburg newspaper, The Star, said the report was the most comprehensive of its kind to date, due to the improved reporting of deaths, from 60 percent in the 1990s to more than 80 percent by 2004.
Although the cause of death was rarely reported as AIDS-related, the distinctive pattern, which peaked between 30 and 34 for women, and 35 to 39 for men, left researchers in little doubt that AIDS was the real culprit in a high proportion of the deaths registered under other causes.
"Large increases in the death rates of women in their 20s and 30s since the late 1990s are thought to result mainly from HIV[/AIDS]," wrote authors Barbara Anderson and Heston Phillips in their introduction to the report. "With the increases in HIV prevalence at antenatal clinics since 1990, and with the long average lag from infection to death, it seems likely that HIV[/AIDS] deaths will continue to increase in South Africa for some years."
The release of the report coincided with an announcement by government spokesperson Themba Maseko that HIV and AIDS would no longer be the sole responsibility of the department of health, but of government as a whole. An interministerial committee, headed by deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, will be set up to assist the health department in coordinating the government's HIV and AIDS programmes.
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