Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - June 18, 2007
Robert Laing
The number of deaths from Aids-related diseases increased by 3.3percent, which researchers at Statistics South Africa said might partly be attributable to improvements in death registration and population growth.
The report by Stats SA entitled "Mortality and causes of death in South Africa, 2005: Findings from death notification" said that tuberculosis was responsible for most natural deaths (12.5 percent) followed by influenza and pneumonia (7.7 percent) and intestinal infectious diseases (4.8 percent).
The report said: "This release covers mortality and causes of death broadly, and hence does not focus specifically on HIV/Aids. It does, however, provide indirect evidence that HIV may be contributing to the increase in the level of mortality for prime-aged adults, given the increase in the number of deaths due to associated diseases.
"The data captured through this exercise can contribute to detailed studies in which the incidence of deaths due to Aids-related conditions is estimated".
The data indicated that the death rates of the leading natural killers were generally on the increase, with HIV/Aids deaths increasing by 8.1 percent from 2004 to 2005. Diabetes mellitus was another disease the statistics showed needs to be given priority.
The report is divided into sections with titles like "Death by Sex", "Death by Age", and "Death by province".
The age data shows South Africa's infant mortality rate is on the rise, listing 1906 babies under the age of 14 months having died of malnutrition in 2005.
The highest number of deaths were children under four (10.4 percent), followed by adults between 30 and 34 (10 percent).
Intestinal infectious diseases were the leading cause of death for those aged one to four years.
Nearly a quarter (23.6 percent) of children aged one to four years died as a result of this disease. The second leading causes were influenza and pneumonia, followed by malnutrition and tuberculosis. HIV ranked sixth.
The report is not entirely depressing in that it showed unnatural deaths decreasing: The data showed that 91 percent of South Africans died from natural causes.
The Western Cape had the highest percentage of deaths associated with non-natural causes, mostly due to assaults.
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