AIDS Hitting Life Expectancy, Warns Motsoaledi. 22/11/10
Kingdom Mabuza and Tebogo Monama
IF NOTHING is done about the HIV-Aids pandemic the country's life expectancy rate will equal what it was 50 years ago.
At present KwaZulu-Natal has the highest number of HIV-Aids infections in the country, while Western Cape has the lowest number
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, pictured, who visited Sowetan offices yesterday, said if the spread of the disease were not stopped, the country's life expectancy will be less than 50.
"Life expectancy will fall in 2015. Our expectancy will equal the one we had in 1955. There was no HIV then and people were dying because the health system was not well-developed," he said.
According to the United Nations, South Africa's life expectancy in 2006 was 51 years for males and 56 for females.
Statistics from 2007 show that 34,8 percent of all deaths in the country can be attributed to HIV-Aids and TB. The 35percent of absenteeism was related to the diseases. He said he was worried about the number of women who died from HIV.
"Their death is not biological. When they are born, it is clear that men have a higher rate of HIV infections. When they reach the age of having children, women have more HIV than males."
Motsoaledi said that when his department analysed 59percent of maternal deaths that occurred between 2005 and 2007, they found that 79percent of the mothers were HIV positive.
At present KwaZulu-Natal has the highest number of HIV-Aids infections in the country, while Western Cape has the lowest number.
The country is number one on the list of TB high burden countries in the world. Out of every 100000 people, 948 are infected with the respiratory disease.
Motsoaledi said annually 22000 children under the age of one die in the country. In a Parliamentary reply on Friday, he said 8001 babies under the age of one died in the first five months of this year.
"The numbers are huge. We currently have an unprecedented number of premature births. We have babies born who weigh between 600g and 800g. The normal birth weight is 2.8kg.
"Our hospitals cannot cope with children that small. They just come to the hospitals to die."
Seventy-thousand children under five die every year. This, he said, can be attributed to the fact that 75000 children are born HIV positive every year.
Motsoaledi said from next year his department would increase the number of distributed condoms for men from 450 million to a billion and from a million to six million for women.