JOHANNESBURG, Nov 22, 2006 (AFP) - A South African pathologist faces a disciplinary hearing Thursday for attributing AIDS as the cause of death on a medical certificate in the first ever case of its kind in the country.
Leon Wagner from South Africa's central Free State agricultural heartland will appear before the South African Health Professions Council in Bloemfontein over a death certificate he had signed after the demise of a young woman in April 2005.
Wagner told AFP that he examined the 30-year-old woman's "corpse and it was typical of a person suffering of AIDS".
"I have done such certificates thousands of times," he said, adding that "everything was done according to the letter of the law."
However, her family took umbrage and lodged a complaint with the national medical watchdog, which had summoned him, Wagner said, adding that it was "not a legal issue but a moral issue about which the governement is sensitive."
Around 5.5 million of South Africa's 47 million people are infected with HIV, the second highest rate in the world after India.
There is still a degree of stigma attached to AIDS and the families of victims often try to fudge the cause of prolonged illness or death.
South African statisticians have said that doctors were generally loathe to attribute AIDS as the cause of death, making it difficult for them to compile the number of AIDS-related mortalities.
The Solidarity labour union said in a statement that "the hearing can be a watershed for South Africa".
"If he is exonerated and it is found that doctors may in future indicate AIDS as the real cause of death on certificates, it would have tremendous consequences for the statistical documentation of this pandemic," Solidarity spokesman Dirk Hermann said.
061122
AF061127
Copyright ©AFP 2006. 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. obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP photos or materials. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP stories, photos or graphics. http://www.afp.com/
AEGiS is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit, tax-exempt, educational corporation. AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, Elton John AIDS Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, Bridgestone Firestone Trust Fund, and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2006. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1990, 2006 - AEGiS. AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content.
