Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - October 12, 2001
Rodney Ehrlich, Cape Town
This reluctance has some disturbing wider implications. First, the collection and summary of vital statistics, that is, births and deaths and information such as cause of death, are government functions which it undertakes in the public interest. In an open democratic society, such information should be placed in the public domain timeously and in a form which enables any interested parties to analyse the information, draw their own conclusions and publish such conclusions. The idea that government "owns" vital statistics, and can decide how such information will be used, is a dangerous one and needs to be resisted.
Second, while the MRC is a statutory body paid for with taxpayers' money, it is not a line agency of government. The independence of MRC researchers in carrying out and publishing their research thus needs to be defended by the public. It was not long ago that the MRC was regarded as a means for the apartheid government to extend its hegemony into the health research sector.
Ways in which the MRC senior management of the apartheid era moved to suppress uncomfortable research can be found in a submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's hearings on the health sector (and recorded in the book An Ambulance of the Wrong Colour).
In this instance it is vital that the MRC senior management resist pressure from government to shelve the report on Aids deaths, or to hold back the report until such time as government "approves" the findings. The belief that they are answerable to Pretoria for the findings or interpretation of their research can only create an atmosphere of anxiety among MRC researchers in investigating the HIV/Aids epidemic. Also to be resisted is the likely pressure for future MRC studies on HIV/Aids to be cleared with government officials before such studies commence.
The MRC report should be released immediately as the first of many such reports needed to publicise the effect of the HIV/Aids epidemic, to track its progression and to test projections based on data from other sources. If there are concerns about the uncertainties inherent in measuring deaths attributable to Aids.,these can be debated in public.
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