Issued by: Gauteng Premier
3 October 2001
The Gauteng Health Department would like to disassociate itself from this morning statement in the Johannesburg based Daily the Business Day to the effect that AIDS is the biggest killer our province.
We are not aware of a study which was conducted in Gauteng to support such a statement. Therefore, there is no way in which we could know, conclusively, that AIDS is the number one cause of death in the province. Such statements can only be speculations.
What we can confirm is that in recent years there has been a steady increase in admissions and death in our hospitals. At this stage we are not able to say that these people have certainly died of AIDS, AIDS is not a notifiable disease and that the cause death is usually given as the associated disease, e.g. tuberculosis.
In analysing occupancy rates across our hospitals, it appears that the need is greatest in these areas where one would expect to see HIV-related conditions. In some Medicine and Paediatric wards, recent estimates are that 40% or more of admissions are HIV-positive.
Of interest, however, is that our Orthopaedic services also show an increased demand for care, reflecting the levels of injuries and accidents in our society.
The Department together with clinicians has put in place strategies to enable services to better cope with the demand, at the same time as we improve the collection of data to get a clearer picture of the exact causes of death. All we have at this stage is anecdotal evidence regarding our main causes of death. HIV does remain a major priority across our health services.
We can only have an accurate picture of the role of HIV/AIDS pandemic in the increased in mortality rate if HIV/AIDS is declared a notifiable disease. Until then, it will be irresponsible to classify AIDS as the biggest killer in the province if no scientific study has been done to support such a position.
For more information, please contact:
Popo Maja
Head of Communications
Gauteng Health Department
011-355-3841
082-373-1169