Issued by: GCIS
17 September 2001
About a year ago, an Interdepartmental Task Team on Mortality Statistics was established to give effect to a Cabinet decision to prioritise work on the collection of mortality data. The Team is led by Statistics SA and consists of representatives of various departments as well as the Medical Research Council. In a spirit of co-operation and in order to facilitate the work of the team, the department of Home Affairs granted participants special access to raw data in its possession.
This working arrangement is the context in which the study on AIDS-related mortality was undertaken by the Medical Research Council. As heads of the departments participating in the Task Team, we would like to comment on some issues that have arisen.
At the outset, we would like to say that we view the MRC study as an important contribution to a broader process of establishing mortality rates in this country and particularly the impact of HIV/AIDS on the pattern of deaths.
But, as experts (including the World Health Organisation) point out, there are inherent problems in measuring AIDS related deaths, precisely because such deaths are often recorded under other causal categories. Accordingly, scientists are forced to use indirect measurements rather than simply count the numbers - and this is, indeed, the case with the MRC study.
Because different researchers incorporate different assumptions into their research - and therefore produce different estimates of mortality - the Task Team has an important role to lay in collating and interpreting various studies. It is unfortunate that the MRC research has become public outside of the framework as the Task Team is in a position to relate individual studies to the broader context.
A major milestone in the work of the Task Team will be the release of official mortality figures for the years 1997 to 2000 by Statistics SA around the end of the year. "We have made an enormous effort to fast track these figures precisely because we appreciate their significance in informing policy positions in the current context," says Statistician General Pali Lehohla.
Any suggestions that there have been deliberate delays in presenting the MRC results are unfounded. The completed MRC study was first presented to heads of the departments of Home Affairs, Health and Statistics SA on September 3 2001 and two days later the results were shared with heads of other departments in the Social Cluster.
The MRC is scheduled to make a presentation on its study to Ministers of the Social Cluster soon and thereafter to Cabinet. Since the release of Statistics SA's official mortality figures is expected within a few months, detailed government comment on the MRC research will be reserved until it is possible to review the two sets of figures in relations to each other.
Pali Lehohla - Statistician-General
Billy Masetlha - Director-General of Home Affairs
Ayanda Ntsaluba - Director-General of Health
Enquiries:
Connie Muvunyi (Statistics SA) 082 893 9455
Hennie Meyer (Home Affairs) 082 807 8965
Jo-Anne Collinge (Health) 082 787 0202
Distributed by GCIS (Government Communications and Information Systems) on behalf of Statistics SA and the Departments of Health and Home Affairs.