JOHANNESBURG, Sept 10 (AFP) - President Thabo Mbeki, who questions the link between HIV and AIDS, has come under fire again -- this time for using six-year-old statistics to bolster his claim that HIV/AIDS is not South Africa's leading cause of death.
Mbeki said in a letter to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, a copy of which was published Monday in Business Day newspaper, that government's spending on health services should be re-examined in the light of World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics he found on the Internet -- dated 1995.
South Africa's main political opposition 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.
The smaller opposition United Democratic Front, Bantu Holomisa, said the letter "should serve as the final verdict on his (Mbeki's) incompetence and incapability to look after the best interests of the country".
The WHO 1995 figures back up Mbeki's assertion that AIDS is not the leading cause of death in the country, accounting for just 2.2 percent of fatalities -- way behind external causes such as homicide, accidents and suicides, and a host of other categories.
Business Day says, however, that a South African Medical Research Council (MRC) report to be published soon is expected to show that the pattern of AIDS deaths has shifted significantly since the mid-1990s and that AIDS has indeed become the leading cause of death in the country.
Mbeki in his letter warns the health minister that the figures will "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" in South Africa.
The South African leader has been criticised internationally for having said in 2000 that AIDS might not be directly caused by HIV, despite the fact that South Africa has the world's largest HIV population with 4.7 million infected.
He famously told parliament "a virus cannot cause a syndrome."
In the letter Mbeki instructs the minister to examine the WHO statistics and assess whether "our health policies and therefore the allocation of resources reflect the incidence of death as reflected by these figures."
He urged Tshabalala-Msimang to institute a recommendation by an AIDS panel he has set up -- comprising AIDS dissidents -- that statistics "which are regularly peddled as a true representation of what is happening in our country" be thoroughly reviewed.
The country's foremost AIDS lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) said Mbeki's letter constituted "a tragedy."
TAC secretary Zackie Achmat told AFP the "number of deaths of meningitis of tuberculosis and pneumonia shows that HIV-related illnesses had become the main cause of death in the country."
Toby Kasper of international humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Cape Town said figures to be released by the MRC will proof this.
"The data that will be coming out suggests that AIDS is not only the leading cause of death but in South Africa but may outweigh all the other causes together.
He said Mbeki was basing his arguments on "outdated data" and that this was going to "lead you to incorrect conclusions."
DA deputy health spokeswoman Sandy Kalyan told AFP that figures for 1999 from assurance companies -- the latest available -- show that 23,000 people died violently in that year against 250,000 who died of AIDS-related illnesses.
The letter, she said, "is just another example of the president's bizarre behaviour over the whole HIV/AIDS pandemic. He's in complete denial of the problem."
Government has set aside 125 million rand (14 million dollars) in a special AIDS fund for the 2001/2002 financial year, but says it cannot afford to provide anti-AIDS drugs on public health.
TAC is has taken the government to court on this, hoping to force it to take immediate steps to prevent mother-to-infant transmission of HIV.
The body Monday said their main concern was not Mbeki's statistics, but his beliefs.
"The central question is whether the president believes that HIV causes AIDS and is prepared to lead government in fighting the disease."
010910
AF010934
Copyright © AFP or Agence France-Presse, 2001 - All Rights Reserved. AFP articles contained on the AEGiS web site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without AFP's prior written permission. You may make one copy of each article for your personal, non-commercial use only; more copies would require AFP's prior written permission.. http://www.afp.com/
ÆGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, the National Library of Medicine, and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2001. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1990, 2001 - ÆGiS. ÆGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All materials appearing on ÆGIS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of ÆGIS and the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, or the party credited as the provider of the content.
